Everyone Needs An Anthem
by 80sUnLoveChild
Summary: Follows my story 'This One's For You' Jesse's Gone, Rachel is humiliated...what happens now?
1. Chapter 1

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own anything but in support of Matt finally having a line (my eyes welled with tears) I have decided to post the continuation of my story 'This One's For You'.**

_Ch1…_

You would think that even the meanest bullies of the world would lay off a girl who had had a very public and dramatic showdown with her boyfriend in front of the entire student body just the day before. Of course you would be wrong.

Rachel stared at herself critically, hair matted and hardening with slushie, her jumper cold and soaking into her skin. Thankfully her reflexes kicked in and she closed her eyes before the raspberry could get her eyes and make her vision blurry for the rest of the day. Sighing loudly she started the by now robotic routine of cleaning herself up, out come the convenient travel size bottles of shampoo and conditioner, she had slipped into the locker room and was making good use of the showers. The hand drier could be twisted to be used as a make shift hair dryer and her gym locker was of course filled with alternate clothes and some make up. She artfully ignored the girls that came into the room, some whispering some just staring and of course the meanest of the bunch openly teasing and laughing at her. Satisfied with her efforts, hair dry, face clean and blouse no longer clinging to her in an awkward and increasingly uncomfortable way. She locked the several different locsk she had equipped her locker with, after the first time she had found her clothes in the toilet it had become a necessity.

"And this denotes a change in the-"

The door of course had to bang shut behind her; she couldn't just slip into the class unnoticed. Mr. Schuester stopped interrupted by the noise and nodded ruefully at Rachel choosing to continue with the lesson rather than embarrass her further. She could feel all the eyes on her as she arranged her desk, pulling out her binder and a selection of pens. She had been going to music theory classes since she was old enough to talk and didn't really need to take notes but it kept her hands and mind busy.

Mr. Schuester waited until the class was distracted by the assigned questions before he really looked at Rachel, her shirt was different to the one she had been wearing this morning when they had met to discuss the 'Cougar Incident' as the club had taken to calling it. He knew what had happened, a slushie facial as the group so bitingly called it. Why Figgins hadn't gotten rid of that damn machine he had no clue.

"Ok so read till the end of chapter 5, tomorrow we will be discussing Chopin's influence on today's music!" He called after the class that was vacating the room at an alarming rate. "Rachel, hang back."

"Sorry I was late Mr. Schuester." She apologized quickly, he raised his hand to quiet her.

"It's fine, that's not what I wanted to talk to you about." Perching on the desk he waited while Rachel sat opposite him. "I got a call from Regionals just before class, VA are still competing but Ms. Corcoran has been disqualified and they will need to have their set list approved against ours first."

"Fine." Rachel said tightly. "I don't suppose the entire choir were apart of the elaborate scheme to humiliate me. Losing their coach so close to the competition will be difficult enough, good luck to them."

"Good attitude." Mr. Schuester commended her. "I was hoping you could have something to show the club after school, morale is obviously a little low this week. I was thinking we could use a boost, something that says we're not going to let people walk all over us anymore. We need an anthem."

"I'll see what I can do." She told him trying to keep the reluctance from her voice. "Can you write me a pass, I'm going to be late to Algebra."

"Already done." He smiled passing it over. "Don't let it hurt you Rachel, you're better than that."

"Thank you." She replied pasting on the smile she usually reserved for perfecting her post Tony win face, she kept this up all the way down the hall, nodding at people on her way. It was only once she was outside, leaning against the brick wall hidden by the dumpster that she let it fall, along with the tears that had been building up. She didn't go to algebra, or the lesson after that, no one would notice, hell she doubted anyone would even care.

The club was spread across the choir room chatting amongst themselves, Mr. Schuester was still staring at the door, Rachel had never been so much as one minute late to one of their meetings. She was usually fifteen minutes early especially when she was supposed to perform.

"So Mr. Schue are we going to call this meeting to order or what?" Puck yelled out from the back of the room, there was only so much shit that he could listen to before he went crazy and between the conversation about shoes Kurt and Mercedes were having and the gossip session of Santana and Brittany he was past his limit.

"He can't Rachel's not here yet." Tina told him, Kurt of course scoffed.

"Please like little Miss Diva is going to show up today, she's probably sitting Shiva for the remains of her love life and reputation."

Santana snickered at his joke and Quinn couldn't hold back the small smile that pulled at her lips.

"Guys!" Mr. Schuester called out not appreciating the sarcastic little smirks some of his students were now sporting. "This is serious, has anyone seen Rachel since this morning?"

Everybody shook their heads and turned to look at Finn who had been silent.

"What?" He asked shivering under their stares.

"Have any of you spoken to her since yesterday?" Mr. Schuester tried again; again the responses were in the negative. "I thought you guys were friends, none of you thought she might be feeling a little insecure and upset and might need you?"

"Mr. Schuester if I may?" Kurt asked motioning to the floor. "Rachel's our star, we need her if we want to win Regionals but I think you are confusing acceptance of talent with friendship. **Nobody** is friends with Rachel, she's selfish, abrasive, annoying and critical."

"And you all feel this way?" Mr. Schuester asked mentally counting the nods; Kurt, Santana, Quinn being the most emphatic.

"She's hard to get along with Mr. Schue." Tina tried to explain, Artie nodding alongside her.

"Well guys then enlighten me. Tell me what it is exactly that makes Rachel such a bad person. Is it wanting solos like you and Mercedes do Kurt?" He asked pointedly. "Is it wanting New Directions to be the best possible and win? You all want to win don't you?" He looked around the room. "That's what I thought. Come on Finn, don't you have something to add?"

"No." He replied fiddling with the zipper on his jacket. Calm and collected, like Bond. He was Bond.

"Really?" Mr. Schuester pressed, Finn was hiding something he now knew the signs.

"Nope nothing." He smiled nervously and sank back into his chair. Bond wouldn't sweat so much when he was nervous, he had to be Bond.

"You know I really thought you guys were better than this." He pulled open his bag and thrust the sheets he had made back in. "Practice is cancelled, since you all don't want to be better and win I just don't see the point."

He left the room angrily the group shaken by his storm out that reminded them of Rachel. Finn was quick to follow his hands thrust deep in his pockets.

"You guys suck you know that." Puck told them climbing down the small bleachers.

"When Puck thinks we're screwing a girl over I think we all know something must be wrong." Mercedes said shifting in her seat uncomfortably.

"You know if that had happened to any of us she would have been there." Tina admitted sadly. "Like when you had a crush on Kurt. Or when he vacated the closet."

"She gave me a bunch of pamphlets and invited me to meet her dads." Kurt remembered. "She congratulated me on my alternative lifestyle choice and commended my dedication to living life to its fullest. She wanted to start a new club at school called the Guy-Lesb-All. The Gay and Lesbian Alliance."

"She's the product of two dads?" Santana asked giggling. "That explains so much, but not her wardrobe, you'd think her fashion sense would be so much better living the palace of Gay Town."

"Says the girl who wears her Cheerio's uniform to school everyday." Matt commented rolling his eyes.

"You know the girl sometimes makes me want to use a power saw on my head." Puck began shuddering for effect. "But she's my friend." He even managed to say the words without hesitance or vomiting. "You know she helped me with algebra so I didn't get cut from Football or Glee?"

"You let the dictator teach you things?" Kurt asked aghast. "Why would you give her the power?"

"She caught me and Mike up when we first joined the club and since Finn joined his vocabulary is much better. The other day I heard him use masochistic in a sentence and it was right." Matt added backing up Puck.

"So y'all think we're mean bitches just cause we don't like Rachel?" Mercedes summed up. "If you guys were all such good friends why didn't you go over there with ice cream and make her talk about her feelings?"

"Because we have penises?" Puck answered. "We figured that was the girls job well and Kurt's."

"I'd resent that if it wasn't something I would participate in." Kurt sniffed pretending to inspect his sleeve.

"Maybe they're right." Tina admitted her conscience getting the best of her. "I feel terrible right now, Mr. Schuester seemed pretty upset and he's usually right about these things."

"Yes he is." Quinn agreed quietly slowly pulling herself to her feet. "I think we all know there is no love lost between me and Rachel. But even after everything I did to her when she found out about the baby the first thing she did was knit some booties for her."

"I knew you didn't knit gold star booties for the kid!" Puck muttered to himself remembering all too vividly when he found Quinn misty eyed over those damn booties at her locker.

"I'm still a bitch to her now even after I left Finn's place and moved in with Puck and she offered up her house to me." She continued ignoring the football player as she often did. "In a weird way I blame her for this." She gestured to her stomach. "If Finn hadn't joined Glee and fallen for her I wouldn't have gotten drunk on wine coolers and had sex with Puck."

"That's why you hate her so much?" Tina asked almost reverting back to her stutter she was so nervous. Quinn nodded sadly stroking her stomach.

"It's stupid but I needed someone to blame and she was always there you know? When we were kids we took ballet together and she always got the parts that I wanted, she was always so happy and confident in herself and I just wasn't. I hated that."

"Oh god it's like we're in an episode of Degrassi." Santana groaned hanging her head off the back of her chair. "Wow let's all share our feelings! Quinn's really just an insecure little girl! Puck has daddy issues! Kurt's got even bigger daddy issues!" She cheered out each statement with fake enthusiasm. "Guess what? Everyone has problems it was just Berry's turn."

She pushed herself back further into her chair and scowled, this was high school everyone had problems.

"So what now then Quinn?" Kurt asked tiredly, it really was like an after school special. "Do we all get together and sing her a song about how sorry we are and how much we want her back?"

Artie smiled arching his eyebrow. "Well why not? We're a glee club and Mr. Schuester is always trying to get us to use music to express ourselves. Like Eric Clapton when he wrote _Tears in Heaven_."

"Why would you cry in heaven?" Brittany asked confused.

"It's about how his son crawled out a window and died." Puck told her shocked, didn't everyone know that? Kurt bit back a sob and covered his mouth.

"That's what that song's about?"

"Wow she's right." Puck was amazed. "You are culturally retarded."

"So not the issue right now." Mercedes cut them all off, she could practically feel her best friends increase in anger over being called culturally retarded by someone sporting a mo-hawk.

"She's right." Tina agreed. "We shouldn't be fighting we need to work on this. If Rachel were here we'd already have a song and be learning choreography by now."

"It was her idea to sing _Lean on Me_ for you Quinn." Mercedes told her. "Can you think of anything to return the favour?"

"The only song about friendship I know is _The Golden Girls_ theme." Quinn replied rolling her eyes. "Not exactly what you had in mind."

"Oh I don't know." Tina giggled. "_You're heart is true you're a pal and a confidant." _

"_I'm not ashamed to say I hope it always will stay this way._" Mike sang back laughing at the looks of disbelief. "What? My grandpa had a thing for Betty White."

"That Blanche was a hall of fame Cougar." Puck said admiringly shoving Matt who snorted at him.

"Moving on." Kurt shuddered seizing his chance to take control. "Does anyone know a song for this occasion? Anyone at all?"

"That Barney song?" Brittany suggested. "I always feel so happy when he tells me he loves me."

"Anything that doesn't involve purple dinosaurs?" Kurt asked again, Barney had always kind of freaked him out.

"Friends?" Tina suggested.

"Yes we want a song that tells her we all want to be friends." Kurt huffed snapping his fingers.

"No **friends**." Tina emphasized resisting the urge to roll her eyes. "You know _So no one told you life was gonna be this way._"

Mike and Matt clapped three times quickly and laughed.

"It could work." Mercedes agreed wrinkling her nose. "Rachel told me her parents named her after Jennifer Aniston's character on the show."

"Can we please shy away from TV theme songs?" Kurt shouted exasperated. "This is Rachel, Queen of the Broadway musicals not Brittany."

"Well then what do you suggest?" Tina shot back. "I haven't heard you contribute anything!"

"Oh I don't know can't we just get Finn and her together and say that was our apology?" He suggested carelessly. 

"That's not bad." Puck agreed rubbing his palms together. Kurt looked over alarmed.

"No, no it's insane." He corrected him desperately. "As his future step-brother I beg you to reconsider." It was bad enough he had to compete with her at school for solos and Finn but he didn't want to have to compete with her in his own home.

"That was the first helpful suggestion we've had all afternoon. Everybody knows those two are still hot for each other."

"You guys didn't have to hear him sing _Jessie's Girl_ in the shower after practice." Mike complained. "It was cool the first few times but everyday for two months straight? Painful."

"So we know he still wants her but does Rachel still want him?" Mercedes asked looking around the room. "She was pretty upset after he dumped her I think we can all remember _Gives You Hell_."

"And she practically broke her neck fleeing the stage last week after _Tiny Dancer_." Tina added chewing on her lip.

"One way to find out." Quinn mused heaving a sigh. "Girls we're going to need _Dirty Dancing_, cookie dough fudge mint chip ice cream, hair curlers, nail polish and _SingStar_."

Tina nodded swiftly. "Meet at her place at six?" She suggested.

"I'll bring the vodka." Santana begrudgingly offered, it was a part of the girl code you can't not attend a slumber party.

"And don't forget your teddy bear." Brittany added pulling a worn looking teddy from her bag. "I've already got Chewbacca with me."

_Chewbacca?_ Puck mouthed to Quinn who shook her head mouthing back _Don't even ask._

"What are you girls doing?" Matt finally asked, he didn't speak fluent female; he doubted even Kurt did.

"Slumber party." The five replied in unison, Santana and Brittany giving them looks that clearly said 'duh'.

"No girls can resist a slumber party." Mercedes explained. "If we're lucky by morning she'll forget Jesse St. Jackass and be back to correcting our pitch."

"Right. Lucky." Kurt mumbled sombrely. He knew this was a necessity but he didn't have to like it. His therapist said he had so many issues with Rachel because she was so like himself, which he was, loathe to admit.

The girls filed out quickly planning out the night between them leaving the boys standing around awkwardly. After a few minutes Mike slowly raised his hand.

"Dude we're not in class you don't have to raise your hand." Puck snapped.

"I've got a question." Mike defended himself. "Shouldn't someone talk to Finn?"

"Don't worry I'll take one for the team." Kurt offered miserably; if you can't beat 'em join 'em or whatever. "Finn's mum and my dad are making us have a family dinner tonight. I'll talk to him then."

"And say what?" Matt asked suspiciously, it was a well known non secret that Kurt had a crush on Finn.

"Find out if he's still into Rachel, how on earth he could be, why he insists on wearing so much plaid and if time permits what his opinion on wall papers are." Kurt replied airily leaving before anyone could tell him otherwise.

So the girls would be surprising Rachel with a sleep over and Finn would be attacked by his soon to be step brother who was still in some kind of weird competition with Rachel because she was pretty much him with boobs and therefore actually had a shot with Finn. Puck grabbed his bag and sighed once more. There was no way anything good could come from all of this but given yesterday it couldn't make anything worse.


	2. Chapter 2

**DISCLAIMER: I am not the awesome Ryan Murphy but merely a fan of his work. Obviously we are like minded individuals; NPH, Joss Whedon and Safety Dance? You'll realize we are psychically connected if New Directions sings anything by Cat Stevens =D**

_Ch2…_

He hadn't been stalking her, well not exactly. It just so happened that his gym class made it so that when Rachel left music theory they would both be in the same hallway and headed to the same algebra class. He had been late out of the locker room thanks to 'someone' taking his shirt and leaving it in the showers to soak up water. Now he stank of sweat and cheap deodorant after rescuing a plain white shirt from the lost and found box. He had noticed her immediately, her hair was as always down and his height made it easy for him to see her in the crowd, he'd been within a hands grasp of her when she veered off and outside to what most students referred to as the deadbeats dumpsters. It was either his gut wrenching feeling that she was upset or his strong urge to avoid anything math related that had him follow her outside.

He didn't now how long he hung back just watching her breakdown, at first he had wanted to comfort her but Santana's snark about him stalking Rachel made him stop. By the time he had decided to just ignore the voice and go to her it had seemed kind of creepy that he had been watching her cry, shoulder shaking, sobs unmistakable.

"Are you just going to keep standing there?"

Her voice made him jump and stumble against the dumpsters, great now he smelt like sweat, cheap deodorant and yesterdays lunch.

"How long have you known I was here?"

"Pretty much the whole time, you're not really built for stealth." She replied wiping at her face with a pack of tissues she pulled from her bag. "Pretty pathetic huh?"

"Nah." He dismissed dropping down next to her. "Pathetic would be believing someone when they said they could get pregnant in a spa without having sex."

As intended Rachel actually managed a laugh, a small hiccupping one but he would take the small victory.

"You're not pathetic Finn, you just believe the best in people." She told him patting his hand. "That's not pathetic, it shows what kind of person you are."

"So the fact that I'm a gullible idiot is a good thing?" He asked furrowing his eyebrows.

"I think we both fall under that category now." Rachel replied sadly biting down on her lip. "I'm just so angry at myself. I knew there was something off about him but I was just so happy that somebody liked me and wasn't ashamed about it that I didn't care. I should have known better, nothing good ever comes without strings attached."

"Don't blame yourself Rach. If I hadn't screwed up with you Jesse would have never swooped in. What a douche. You're awesome, don't let idiots like us make you think otherwise."

"Oh yeah I'm real awesome." Rachel agreed sarcastically, he didn't like it colouring her tone, it didn't suit her. "I'm **so** awesome that the only person who called me last night to see if I was okay was Brittany and three minutes into that conversation I realized she thought she had called Quinn. Besides you no one wanted to know if I was okay. Nobody cares Finn, if I lost my voice and couldn't sing anymore I would disappear and no one would even care."

"I'd care." He told her holding her roughly by the chin. "You know I'd care. It might take a little while but eventually I get it. Those other guys… they'll figure it out too. Don't give up on them Rach."

Somehow sitting amongst the dumpsters holding the girl you had weird stomach curling feelings for and wiping tears from her face was the exact place he wanted to be. He could kiss her right now, he wanted to.

"Finn?"

For a moment he was back in the auditorium and she was telling him he could kiss her.

"Yeah?"

"Can you take me home? I can't be here right now."

Blinking he snapped back into reality, he flushed slightly and nodded standing up quickly and offering her his hand.

"Yeah of course, do you want me to stay with you? My mum would kill me if I left you by yourself when you're feeling so miserable."

"I'm just going to make cookie dough and watch _The Way We Were_ and cry." She told him buckling herself into his car. "You can stay if you want but you have to go back to school for Glee this afternoon, one of the co captains should be there to set an example."

He didn't bother trying to hide the smile, even when she looked so small and alone she was still thinking about what was best for the club.

"Sure, as long you don't mind sharing that cookie dough."

"I'll make you your very own bowl." She promised. "And could you not tell anyone about this? I'm already the laughing stock of the school the last thing I want to do is give them something else to laugh about."

"It'll be our little secret." He told her whistling and tapping out a beat on the steering wheel. Rachel gasped and slapped his arm recognizing the song.

"I'm not a dirty little secret Mr. Hudson!" She exclaimed hitting him again.

_"My dirty little secret, who has to know?" _He sang teasing her. Huffing she crossed her arms over her chest.

"Great! Now I have that song stuck in my head!" She snapped a few minutes later.

"Pay back." Finn told her smugly pulling the car into her driveway. "I had _Express Yourself_ stuck in mine for days. Try explaining that in the showers after Basketball practice."

Without much warning the visual of Finn dressed in a colourful corset style top and black pants popped into her mind and she giggled.

"Glad my misfortune can amuse you." He sulked winking so she knew he wasn't really upset.

"Just leave your bag here." She gestured to the space next to the door and walked towards the kitchen. "I'll teach you how to make my famous sugar cookies, I find baking is a great way to **express yourself**." She emphasized her eyes twinkling.

"If you're just going to make fun of me maybe I should leave." Finn decided pretending to get up.

"Fine, I'll stop!" She promised grabbing his arm and swinging him around. "I really appreciate this Finn, thank you." Standing up on her toes she leant up to kiss his cheek, her shoes slipped and her kiss ended up sloppily on the corner of his mouth. They both turned bright red and sprang apart.

"So! Can you grab some eggs? I'll get the flour and sugar." Rachel instructed turning away.

This was a bad idea, a bad, bad, bad idea.

Mr Schuester was cursing to himself using language that was more suited to a boxing arena than a school hallway. Finn knew where he was headed, it was where he could always be found when he had a problem; in Miss. Pillsbury's office. Carefully he took the long way around to her office, if he had his sunglasses and a dark hat he'd wear them both.

He could actually hear Mr. Schue before he could see him, lucky school had been out for about fifteen minutes or else there would be a group of students listening in.

"Mr. Schue? Can I talk to you for a sec?" He asked slipping into the office and smiling nervously at Ms. Pillsbury who looked alarmed at Mr. Schuester's anger.

"What is it Finn?" He asked grinding each word with his teeth.

"It's about Rachel." That got his attention, the anger magically falling from his face. "She asked me not to say anything in front of the club, she just wasn't up to facing everyone after yesterday. I could kill that guy."

"Get in line." wiLL muttered earning a small glare from Emma.

"She'll be okay, I'm going to go back there now I already called my mum and she said I have to bring Rachel to dinner tonight and she can stay with us while her dad's are at their conference in Maine." He explained quickly.

"Did she say exactly why she skipped school?" Will motioned to Emma who had the attendance records open on her computer. "Why you both did?"

"She was really upset and she asked me to take her home and my mum told me to never leave someone alone when they were upset. She said she'd call the school tomorrow and explain everything." Finn was itching to leave, their decision to make cookie dough had backfired when Finn had slipped and ended up smashing some batter into Rachel's hair. Of course a full on food fight had ensued both of them sliding over the kitchen's hardwood floors which Rachel remembered had been waxed the night before.

"Maybe I shouldn't have asked her to sing this afternoon." Will said regretfully scratching the back of his neck. "Rachel's always been so strong I just figured she'd want to sing about it and get it out of her system."

"Don't blame yourself Will, given her track record I would have made the same assumption." Emma consoled him carefully mindful of Finn still in the room.

"What kind of song?" Finn asked intrigued, getting her into a song searching frenzy could help.

"Something that says we are strong and are going to overcome everything, like an anthem." He elaborated his idea form earlier more fully. "Maybe it was too much for her."

"Don't worry about it Mr. Schue by tomorrow Rach and I will have something to share."

"Are you sure? I mean if she was so upset today do you really think she'll come back tomorrow?" Will was doubtful, there was only so much kids could handle and he had a feeling yesterday might be what cracked one Rachel Berry.

"She'll be here if I have to walk her to every class myself." Finn sounded so solemn Emma almost laughed, it was like he would take a bullet for her; or at least a slushie.

She waited until Finn closed the door behind him and walked off before she looked back at Will who looked nervous.

"What is it Will?"

"I'm just worried, a bad break up is one thing but to be publically humiliated like that y your first boyfriend is-"

"A horrifying thing." She finished for him. "Every break up feels horribly Will but if you have good friends to help you through it you'll emerge stronger than before and it looks like Rachel has that in Finn."

"It's just too bad about the other kids." He said darkly. "I really thought my kids were better than that, that after everything they'd been through this year that they were smarter than that."

"They're still teenagers Will. They don't always say or do the right thing, they need someone to show them the way." She pursed her lips and giggled lightly. "Or scream it at them."

Will just looked at Emma and shook his head. Maybe his kids were what he thought; all he knew was tomorrow was going to be very enlightening.

**Thanks so much for all your lovely reviews. Definitely gave me incentive to keep writing, I've already knocked out 5 chapters of this so keep the reviews coming and I'll keep posting! BTW Anyone else LOVE watching Finn and Puck sing LOSER?**


	3. Chapter 3

**DISCLAIMER: I am not Ryan Murphy. I wish I had his brain.**

_Ch3…_

She'd been in the shower for at least half an hour trying to get the cookie dough out of her hair, possibly she should have washed it out before sitting down to watch the movie, even now ruffling it with the towel to dry it she could still smell the sugar. No need to use perfume tonight. Mrs. Hudson had called her maybe ten minutes after Finn had departed, she was still a little teary from watching _The Way We Were_ and the woman's gentle tone had sent her into full fledged tears; she'd always wanted a mum. Now she was faced with the task of packing for her stay at the Hudson home, she'd need an outfit for tomorrow, a back up outfit in case she was slushied, pyjamas, and underwear. She was still running back and forth in her room packing jewellery, make up and books for her bag that she failed to notice the knocking at her door or the foot steps up her stairs.

She was just racing back to her en suite to grab her hair curler when she caught sight of Finn leaning against her door jam; she let out a small scream and jumped slightly.

"Are you going to make a habit of just watching me?" She asked opening her closet door and surveying her outfits, she was very conscious of the fact she was only wearing her robe and underwear in front of him.

"I knocked but I guess you were distracted." He answered not moving. "I talked to Mr. Schue, he went off on everyone at practice, I thought that wiggly vein above his eye was going to burst."

Rachel stuck her head back out from behind her door raising one eyebrow.

"Mr. Schuester, Mr. Equality and Peace screamed at everyone? About what?"

She was just pulling her blue jumper with the gold bow on when he answered, she was certain she heard him wrong.

"What?"

"He yelled at everyone for not being more supportive then he refused to practice and he stormed out." Finn told her smiling slightly. "It was amazing, everyone looked so freaked out."

Taking a seat at her vanity Rachel bit back a groan. "Well that's just great now when I go to school tomorrow everyone is going to be fake nice to me because Mr. Schuester told them to."

"I don't know Rach everyone looked pretty shaken up, even guilty."

"Well it doesn't bother me, for the sake of the team I'll remain civil." She decided brushing her hair vigorously; hopefully Finn wouldn't notice the shake in her hand.

"Speaking of the team." He segued easily; it was obvious she didn't want to talk about that anymore. "Mr. Schue mentions he wants us to come up with some kind of theme song for the team. You had any ideas?"

"A few." She admitted. "I keep a journal of song lyrics, I like to organize them according to what they remind me of; couples, emotions. Like whenever I listen to _Single Ladies_ I remember the whole football team dancing on the field. You can have a look if you want." She gestured to the notebook that was thick and puffy from things being pasted on the pages. Of course a gold star was stretched across the cover. "I just need to dry my hair."

The blare of the blow drier rendered conversation useless, Finn sat on the bed marvelling at how soft and comfy it was. Notebook resting against his knees he cracked it open to leave through, he couldn't help but laugh at Rachel's organisation; printed neatly in the corner of the cover was her name, phone number and address in case misplaced.

There were a lot of songs in here, some he'd heard of, some he was surprised she'd heard of and of course some he'd never heard of. He could easily see her notes under the lyrics naming things. Apparently _Take A Bow_ reminded her of him. He frowned and quickly turned the page leafing through it quicker. He could tell when they had reached the Jesse pages by the small red heard next to the song title, on the last page was obviously something added recently, he'd guess yesterday judging by the dried tear marks. _I Never Loved You Anyway_.

"You find anything?" She asked appearing in the doorway hair dry and bouncy as usual. He flipped back a few pages ignoring the song he had been staring at and showed her the page he had noted earlier.

"This could work." He was nervous. "I've never heard it but I think the lyrics are what we are looking for at least."

"I have it on my iPod if you want to have a listen." She offered pointing to where it sat on its platform connected to speakers.

"Can you sing it?" He asked.

"Sure." She smiled nervously idly wondering if she should sit or stand or what. "Right now?"

"Yeah, unless you don't want to."

"No it's fine." Rachel assured him. "Just let me uh, finish getting ready."

The two sat in awkward silence while Rachel fussed with her shoes opting for the flats she'd worn at Sectionals and forgoing the socks all together, Jesse always said he liked her knee socks it was like they were tainted now. Breathing deeply she counted out the beat in her mind and closed her eyes singing softly at first.

_"Hey what would you say if I can't play the hero tonight?  
Because lately I've been feeling like  
I can't get anything right"_

She opened her eyes when she felt Finn grab her hand and pull her to him practically sitting on his lap.__

"I've been fading in to the woodwork again  
and I've been feeling like I just want to hide  
well guess what?  
I'm going to try something just a little bit different this time"

Using the book as a guide she motioned for Finn to sing with her taking his cues from her.

"_I'm gonna give myself permission to shine  
I'm gonna shine so bright  
gonna make every heard wanna turn  
you're finally gonna see me  
give myself permission to shine  
gonna light up the night  
shine a little of my light on the world"_

She could feel herself getting into the song, it was odd that he would pick this song out of all the others, she thought for sure he would think of some obscure eighties rock anthem.

"_I've been crazy  
I've been holding myself back for so long  
but I've got so much I can give  
don't wanna be afraid to be wrong"_

A good singer would use her experiences to portray the emotions of the song; luckily she was chockfull of emotion tonight.

"_You know I'm not too good at too many things  
But I've been getting real good  
at getting down on myself  
well guess what?  
I'm gonna try to break free from this prison I've built"_

This time she didn't need to nod at him Finn just joined in grasping her hand and staring at her.

"_I'm gonna give myself permission to shine  
I'm gonna shine so bright  
gonna make every heard wanna turn  
you're finally gonna see me  
give myself permission to shine  
gonna light up the night  
shine a little of my light on the world  
shine a little of my light on the world  
shine a little of my light on the world"_

And now was where it started to kick up, breathing deeply she started to belt out the words, her neighbours could complain about the noise all they want.

"_Oh that's right  
I'm gonna try something just a little bit different this time_

_I'm gonna give myself permission to shine  
I'm gonna shine so bright  
gonna make every heard wanna turn  
you're finally gonna see me  
give myself permission to shine  
gonna light up the night  
shine a little of my light on the world"_

Finn held back and just watched her immerse herself in the song, the music that played only in her mind. She had closed her eyes again and was dancing slowly around her room singing the song freely.

"_Give myself permission to shine  
I'm gonna light up the night  
shine a little of my light on the world  
shine a little of my light on the world  
shine a little of my light on the world_

_Shine, shine, shine_

_shine a little of my light on the world_

_give myself permission to_

_shine, shine, shine"_

She slowly came back down from her singing high, she was no longer on that stage lights shining on her but in her room sitting on her bed where there was an audience of one.

"I liked it." Finn said it was pretty much the first thing that came to mind.

"Thanks. We should keep looking though, we don't want to just pick the first thing we see." Standing up and brushing invisible lint from her skirt she pointed to the notebooks that lined her shelf. "We can take my other notebooks for inspiration if you like, that one is only current for the last three months.

"We can ask my mum too." Finn suggested grabbing the first five notebooks his hands touched. "She can't wait to meet you so we should probably hurry."

"Okay, let me just grab some of the cookies that actually made it into the oven to bring with me. It's impolite to show up at someone's house without something for the host." Rachel smiled at Finn.

"You don't have to do that." He protested reaching for her suitcase.

"I know but I want to." She told him kissing his cheek. "Thank you Finn."

Rachel was going to be staying with him, possibly in the same room. She would be showering where he showered with only a thin curtain and a door separating them. He didn't know if this would work out well but he couldn't see a scenario where it didn't.

**Many apologies, I meant to post this two days ago but I had a crisis of the 9 year old's birthday party kind. Alas I am now fully stocked of pinantas, face paint and other items deemed necessary. Also how freaking awesome was the finale? Expect a new fic based around that episode…I think Finn and Rachel would have had a little something to say to Jesse/Vocal Adrenaline before they left. **


	4. Chapter 4

**DISCLAIMER: I wish I was Ryan Murphy. I wish I was awesome enough to be able to stroll onto the set of GLEE and be all 'what up?' Alas that is not me. **

_Ch4…_

_3FINCHEL3_

The five girls sat awkwardly in the car the back seat stuffed with pillows, blankets and food; the ice cream dangerously close to dripping all over the floor.

"Did anyone think to check if Rachel would be home?" Tina asked holding onto her stuffed penguin Atreyu.

"It's Rachel, I just figured she'd be here." Mercedes answered guiltily. "And I'm just realizing that that is the sort of thinking that got us here in the first place. Where could she be?"

"The music store?" Tina suggested. "That's where she met Jesse right?"

Quinn snorted. "I doubt she'd want to risk running into him, I always go shopping when I'm depressed, maybe she's at the mall."

"Or maybe she's just ignoring us." Santana opined. "Did anybody check if the door was even locked?"

The others all looked at each other and shook their heads, the current head cheerio rolled her eyes and jumped out of the car. The house was nice, of course given her two gay dads were lawyers and well gay you would expect nothing less. Santana tried the door but it held, unfortunately for the Berry's they weren't too careful about home security. They kept a spare key 'hidden' in the fuse box next to the door.

"I'm not going in here alone, I've seen _Carrie_!" She yelled back at the car of girls who exited quickly leaving everything in the car except the ice cream.

"Woah." Mercedes whistled looking around the front entrance. "This place is nice."

"Rachel?" Tina called out softly. "Her room's probably upstairs."

"Ice cream is in the freezer." Quinn reported returning from the kitchen. "Along with like a hundred frozen dinners, I think the kitchen is just for show. Although it did smell like cookies in there."

"This place is too quiet." Mercedes shivered looking around, everything was neat and in its place not so much as a cushion was out of place. "Where are her dads?"

The phone rang shattering the silence, the girls let out loud screams and jumped on each other.

"Hey sweetie, we just wanted to remind you don't forget to pick up the mail, Mrs. Kane is coming by on Wednesday to clean the carpets so leave the money on the counter, you know where the safe is. I have to go, your father bought tickets to Siegfried and Roy! We love you!"

Santana squeezed herself out of the tight group the girls had pressed themselves into and headed for the stairs.

"Wow Kurt was right." Mercedes mumbled. "It's so pink."

Tina pointed to the paint chips stuck to the walls. "Looks like she's thinking of redecorating."

"This looks like my little sister's room." Brittany said at the same time.

"Well she's obviously not here." Quinn huffed dropping onto the bed while the rest snooped around.

"A bunch of her clothes are missing." Tina noticed pointing to the space in her closet. "You don't think she ran away do you?"

"Well she does like to storm off." Santana called from the bathroom rummaging through the drawers.

"Call Finn." Brittany suggested smacking her lips and smiling at the sparkly pink gloss she'd just applied. "He was acting weird this afternoon, he probably knows where she is."

"I'll text Kurt." Mercedes offered already tapping on her iPhone. "They're having dinner with their parents, keep it on the DL but his dad is proposing to Finn's mum tonight!"

"And you think you can keep a secret." Santana smirked at Mercedes who glowered back.

"I can keep a secret, I didn't tell everyone that Puck was looking at-" Mercedes abruptly cut herself off slapping a hand across her own mouth. "Nothing at all."

"Talk." Quinn demanded, Mercedes shook her head frantically.

"Hell no. I can keep a secret, I can keep **this** secret. He doesn't even know that I know."

"Look Mercedes, I'm six months pregnant, my feet are bloated and my pregnancy hormones are making me crazier than Suzy Pepper. Tell me what you know."

"Okay but you didn't hear it from me!" Mercedes warned swinging around so that all of the girls understood. " It was on the weekend, Kurt and I were at the mall looking for some new furniture for his room when he had to go to the bathroom. I saw Puck come in and buy a whole bunch of baby stuff, like a white bassinet and a rocking chair."

"What kind of rocking chair?" Quinn asked softly.

"It was wooden with wide arms and carved backings." She answered confused. "What does it matter? I thought you were giving up the kid?"

"He remembered." Quinn whispered stroking her stomach. "It was forever ago, I said that I always wanted a rocking chair in the nursery."

"Are you really surprised? That boy has been begging you to keep the baby." Tina said playing with her hands. "Are you thinking about it?"

"Maybe a little." She confessed. "I just want what's best for her but then I think of giving her away and I just don't think I can."

The girls crowded around Quinn hugging her, well most of the girls.

"Can we save this female bonding crap for the slumber party, if I have to sit through this twice I may vomit."

Brittany frowned at her best friend and shook her head, Santana huffed and stomped her foot. Best friend telepathic talking was weird.

"Ooh." Mercedes giggled pulling her phone out. "Kurt said Rachel's at the restaurant with them, apparently she's staying with them until her dad gets back. Looks like we have to move the slumber party over there."

"But there'll be boys there." Brittany said slowly. "You can't have boys at a slumber party."

"We'll just have to figure that out when we get there. Don't worry I have a key. Let's go."

Quinn followed last grabbing the stuffed cat from the desk, "Don't forget the ice cream!"

_3FINCHEL3_

She had never met parents before, had never had the chance. Jesse's were away and her fleeting relationships with Puck and Finn had never progressed to the meet the parent's stage. She hoped that everyone felt this nervous and she wasn't just the exception. She breathed in and out yogi style and calmed instantly.

"Rach, we've been sitting in the car park for ten minutes." Finn broke into the silence looking nervously at the restaurant; he could spy his mother sitting at a table with Bart and Kurt.

"I know." She replied tightly. "I've never met someone's parents before. I want them to like me."

Finn tried to swallow the laughter bubbling but failed it coming out as a cross between a hack and a snort.

"You have nothing to worry about." He assured her rubbing her arm. "My mum already loves you, and Burt likes everyone. Come on." Finn opened the door and quickly ran around the car and opened hers helping her out of the car. "Oh and don't eat the breadsticks they suck."

"I'll try to remember that." She mumbled rubbing out imaginary wrinkles in her skirt.

The restaurant was warm although the tinge of red in her cheeks was probably more due to Finn's hands placed on the small of her back and at her elbow guiding her to the table.

"Hey mum." Finn greeted kissing her cheek before leaning over the table to shake Burt's hand. "Hey Burt."

"Finn and Rachel what a surprise." Kurt replied smiling in a slightly maniacal fashion. It really did nothing to calm her nerves.

"Hi Mrs. Hudson, I'm Rachel Berry. It's so nice to meet you." Rachel smiled holding out her hand to Finn's mum.

"Oh honey please call me Carole after all I've heard about you I feel as though I know you already." Carole dismissed grabbing Rachel in a hug, which she returned with only a little hesitance.

"I'm a hand shaker." Burt said up front when Rachel turned to him unsure how to proceed.

"Thank you so much for letting me stay with you." Her manners as always perfect.

"Don't even worry about it." Carole told her patting Rachel's hand. "It's our pleasure. Beside with the way Finn snores you might be rethinking staying alone."

The two girls shared a laugh at Finn his ears turning a bright shade of red. Kurt looked over at his father alarmed.

"Snore? You can't be thinking of letting Rachel stay in our room?" He asked shocked. "She's a girl."

"Kurt." Burt warned smiling apologetically at Rachel. "Rachel is our guest and we're not going to break her back by making her sleep on that lumpy couch. She can stay on the fold out in your room. We trust you."

"But." Kurt protested interrupted by his phone's buzzing. Huffing his thumbs flew across the screen as he answered the text.

"Don't mind him, he's probably worried about you seeing him while he's got goop on his face." Burt excused his son. Rachel just smiled back not wanting to say anything rude, obviously Burt had no idea of the less than pleasant relationship between the two.

"So where are your folks Rachel?" Burt asked playing with the breadsticks in the middle of the table.

"Oh my dads are in Vegas, they had a conference on Wednesday for human rights lawyers and since it's their twentieth anniversary they decided to stay for the weekend." She explained. "Last year they went to the Grand Canyon."

"That's nice." Burt answered coughing from the water he had choked on.

"Finn's been practicing like crazy for Regionals you must be so excited." Carole said changing the subject while Burt tried to regain his composure; Kurt was still thumbing away on his phone muttering to himself.

"We still haven't finalized our set list but I'm sure we'll come up with something, we always do." Rachel smiled at Finn holding his hand under the table, her nerves were threatening to open the gate on her babbling. "Mr. Schuester wants us to come up with an anthem for the team so we might be up late working on that."

"That's nice, have you picked any songs out?"

"Not really." Finn replied for the both of them drumming his fingers across the table. "Are we going to order soon or what, I'm starving."

Rachel sat back and watched while Finn interacted with his new family adding to the conversation when she wanted, it was nice. Maybe this day wouldn't turn out to be so bad after all. Of course she probably jinxed herself with that thought. The three of them descended the stairs into Finn and Kurt's basement room, Finn lugging Rachel's bags, she was tired and wanted nothing more than to slip into a nightgown and listen to some songs with Finn. Fate of course had other plans for her.

_3FINCHEL3_

"SURPRISE!"

Finn grasped her shoulders as Rachel stumbled back into him, Mercedes, Tina, Quinn, Brittany and Santana were spread around the floor of the room with sleeping bags, popcorn, make up and movies.

"What's going on?" Rachel asked eying the group wearily.

"It's a slumber party." Tina answered pulling her from Finn. "We've got ice cream upstairs and-"

"No I know what a slumber party is." She interrupted waving Tina off. "I meant what are you doing here? Is this some kind of pity party because you were all feeling guilty after Mr. Schuester yelled at you today?"

"Rachel." Mercedes began pulling on her sleep shirt. "We've been terrible friends, we should have called you yesterday but we didn't and we wanted to make it up to you."

"By having a slumber party?" She asked sceptically.

"Everyone loves a slumber party." Brittany replied hugging her teddy bear, which was very shaggy and looked like it was glaring at you.

"We brought your stuffed cat." Quinn spoke up holding it out to Rachel like a peace offering. "Please Rachel can't we all just start over?"

Rachel accepted the cat; named Cat like in _Breakfast at Tiffanys_, hugging it to her chest.

"Just like that? Poof every mean comment, every rumour and joke at my expense forgotten?"

"Well not poof exactly!" Quinn said slowly. "First there's a lot of ice cream and girl talk and after we're all sick of that we watch _Dirty Dancing_."

"Finn and I have an assignment for Glee to work on." She protested weakly, she was still really angry.

"He can stay." Tina decided. "Kurt too."

"Well du'h." Kurt rolled his eyes exiting the en suite in silk pyjamas. Rachel looked over at Finn chewing on her lip, he nodded slightly. He knew first hand that holding onto your anger just screwed everything up.

"Fine." She agreed. "But this doesn't mean I've forgiven you."

Grabbing her suitcase she went into the en suite to change, Finn using his side of the room hiding behind the divider to change as well.

"Maybe not yet." Mercedes whispered to the other girls. "But she will soon enough." She nodded towards Finn. "This may be easier than we thought."

When he re entered the room to where the girls were spread out they were giggling and he got that feeling that they were talking about him, he glanced nervously at Santana but she was preoccupied on her phone. He still hadn't come clean to Rachel about that night in the motel; somehow he doubted his forgiveness could be granted with girl talk and a dumb dancing movie.

_3FINCHEL3_

**So glad you guys are all enjoying this. I adore GLEE and can't believe how long I have to go without. A steady diet of RENT, the Wicked Soundtrack and rewatching season 1 can only help so much!**


	5. Chapter 5

**DISCLAIMER: I am not Ryan Murphy, well not until I change my name by deed poll…**

_Ch5…_

_3FINCHEL3_

His bed was definitely not this cramped Finn thought stretching out his stiff neck. Blinking rapidly he took in the sight of six girls spread out across the room all sleeping, Brittany was curled in a ball and drooling while Quinn was spread out across Kurt's bed after the girls decided that the floor wasn't a good place for the pregnant teen to sleep, apparently Mercedes and Tina had stolen his bed and Kurt was lying across the arm chair.

"Rachel?" He nudged the petite brunette he was hugging to himself their legs tangled together, if she didn't move soon she was going to be greeted by a very active part of Finn. Instead of opening her eyes she just burrowed into his chest even more mewing softly like a cat. Oops, yep there he was, morning junior.

Kurt's alarm blasted out from the bedside table blaring the radio, which succeeded in waking everyone up. He guessed nobody had considered the logistics of six girls and one very image conscious guy sharing a bathroom before rushing to school.

"Turn it off!" Santana growled throwing her pillow in the general direction of the offending noise, she missed her target completely hitting Quinn who just used the pillow to try and shut the noise out.

Now awake Tina yawned and pulled her phone from her pocket, she'd forgotten to call Artie back last night. It was his fault for calling during _Dirty Dancing_.

"Guys, last night was fun but I'm going to run home to get dressed, see you at school." She announced grabbing her bag and not bothering to change from her pjs.

"Can you give me a ride?" Mercedes asked pulling on her shoes. "There's no way I'm sharing a bathroom with Kurt again no offense."

"None taken." He replied yelling from the bathroom the shower turning on a few moments later.

"Great, he'll be in there for at least half an hour." Finn groaned.

Santana and Brittany both looked at him in alarm, they couldn't get ready without at least an hour for preparation.

"Hey Tina, don't forget us too." Brittany yelled loudly running up the stairs. "Bye guys!"

Rachel watched in fascination as the room emptied out in rapid succession, she glanced over at Quinn who hadn't moved and didn't seem inclined to.

"Pfft, it's not like I'm a cheerio anymore I don't need to look perfect. Besides I have that pregnancy glow." She explained swinging her feet over the side of the bed. "Though I am starving."

"Burt makes hash browns every morning, he leaves them in the oven for us before we go to school." Finn told her, Quinn's eyes lit up and she too disappeared up the stairs moving with remarkable speed for a pregnant girl.

"Morning." Rachel mumbled into his side rolling back over and pulling the blanket with her. Normally she would be finished with her morning workout and making a breakfast smoothie by now but then again she wasn't usually kept awake until close to four in the morning.

"Did you sleep okay?" Finn asked praying to every god he could name that Rachel didn't move and really meet Jr.

"Well after putting a pillow over Santana's face to stop her snoring those three hours were really refreshing." She joked pulling the blanket down and tucking it under her chin.

"That was Santana?" Finn's jaw gaped in shock. "I thought it was Burt coming through the ceiling."

"Nope." Rachel laughed. "Just Santana, it's going to be hard to stay awake all day." She yawned. "And we have to perform that song for Glee."

"Don't worry I'll keep you stocked with coffee and red bull all day." He promised, his constant chant of mail man having subsided his problem. Rachel wrinkled her nose.

"I don't drink that stuff, it can be a real strain on the vocal chords. I'll just try to get in a nap during my free period." She decided reluctantly sliding out of the oddly comfortable fold out bed and walking over to her suitcase. "Which should I wear?" She asked holding up two different skirts, the denim one he recognised from when they did their Madonna mash up and the other a black one with ruffles he had never seen.

"The black." He chose easily subconsciously pulling a plain black shirt from his own closet. Armed with clothes both stared at the bathroom door where Kurt could be heard loudly singing _Sexy Back_.

"Do you think your mum would mind if I used her bathroom?" Rachel asked shyly her grip on her cosmetics bag tightening.

"Sure just head upstairs it's the second door on the right." He answered quickly, he had gym first period no use showering just to get all sweaty and shower again.

"Thanks." Smiling slightly she wandered up the stairs slowly her mind still not completely over the fact that she had woken up in Finn Hudson's arms with a very important part of him giving her attention.

_3FINCHEL3_

Mr. Schuester was steeling himself for an angry group when he entered the choir room that morning; it had become customary for the group to hang out there before class, catching up, running through songs and in the case of a few members copying homework. The first thing he noticed was that Rachel was sitting in the front, a little tired but no worse for wear. The second thing he noticed was that with the exception of Artie, Puck, Mike and Matt the entire group looked tired, Kurt was wearing his sunglasses inside something he was prone to when he thought he had bags under his eyes.

"How is everyone feeling this morning?" He greeted eying the yawning kids carefully.

"We're fine Mr. Schue." Mercedes called out speaking for the group. "We just had a little slumber party last night is all."

"Yeah we were up really late." Tina added struggling to keep her eyes open.

"And just what happened at this slumber party?" He asked crossing his arms, this should be interesting.

"Just girls stuff."

"Which is why Kurt and Finn were there." Puck grumbled. "Did you braid their hair too?"

"I don't braid hair it's too confusing." Brittany replied. "We did watch _Dirty Dancing _though."

"Wow, can't believe we missed that." Matt muttered sarcastically.

"Well that's not all we did." Quinn defended. "We had girl talk."

"I now know things about these guys I never wanted to." Finn said quietly, he'd been trying to forget that part of the evening. Knowing the guys fantasies, turn on's and other things was so not necessary.

"Seems like you boys missed quite a night." Mr. Schuester laughed. "Finn, Rachel I don't suppose you found time in between girl talk and _She's Like The Wind_ to find a song for us."

"Of course we did." Rachel answered stepping to the middle of the room. "Given recent events Mr. Schuester has asked that Finn and I as co-captains find a song that spurs us on. A song that says we are here and you can't bring us down. An anthem."

"So after the girls finally fell asleep last night after watching that final scene like twelve times Rach and I looked through our stuff and found a song that we think pretty much says it all." Finn continued for her handing over the sheet music to Brad, he idly wondered how much money someone made as a high school piano player.

"All right let's see what you've got." Mr. Schuester clapped sitting down. Quinn and Kurt shared a conspiratorial smile; they had walked in on Finn and Rachel practicing that morning,

"_Listen baby  
Ain't no mountain high  
Ain't no valley low  
Ain't no river wide enough baby"_

Finn sang out bending down on one knee holding his hand out to Rachel. Accepting with a small curtsy the petite brunette took a seat on his knee and began to sing.

"_If you need me call me  
No matter where you are  
No matter how far"_

Hopping off his knee she helped pull him up with him spinning her into his chest.

"_Don't worry baby."_

Spinning her away from him Rachel came to a stop at the piano.

"_Just call my name  
I'll be there in a hurry  
you don't have to worry"_

Walking around Brad she twirled back over to Finn so that they could sing together.

"_Cause baby there  
Ain't no mountain high enough_

_Ain't no valley low enough_

_Ain't no river wide enough_

_To keep me from getting to you"_

Taking a seat at the drums Finn winked at Rachel singing his lines to her.

"_Remember the day_

_I set you free_

_I told you  
You could always count on me darling_

_From that day on I made a vow_

_I'll be there when you want me_

_Someway, somehow"_

Climbing up the small bleachers the two started to pull their friends out of their chairs to join in.

"_Cause baby there,_

_Ain't no mountain high enough_

_Ain't no valley low enough_

_Ain't no river wide enough_

_To keep me from getting to you babe"_

"_Oh no darling" _

"_No wind, no rain_

_Or winters cold can stop me baby"_

Rachel and Finn were still in the centre of the group singing mainly to each other.

"_No, no baby"_

He sang to her his eyes not leaving hers.

"_Cause you are my love"_

She broke away to turn to Mercedes but was pulled back by Finn flush against his chest.

"_If you're ever in trouble  
I'll be there on the double_

_Just send for me oh baby"_

Blushing she focused on the lyrics and not the piercing stare Finn was giving her.

"_My love is alive_

_Way down in my heart_

_Although we are miles apart"_

Remembering they weren't alone Finn let go of Rachel's hands and threw his arm around Tina.

"_If you ever need a helping hand_

_I'll be there on the double_

_As fast as I can"_

Dancing around each other everyone joined in on the chorus, smiling like idiots.

_"Don't you know that there_

_Ain't no mountain high enough_

_Ain't no valley low enough_

_Ain't no river wide enough_

_To keep me from getting to you_

_Don't you know that_

_There ain't no mountain high enough_

_Ain't no valley low enough_

_Ain't no river wide enough!"_

Rachel broke away from the group and turned to Mr. Schuester.

"So what do you think?"

"It's not exactly what I had in mind but it definitely worked." He complimented, leaning in closer he dropped his voice down lower. "You know that if you need anything you can come to me or Miss. Pillsbury."

"Thanks Mr. Schue but I think I'll be okay." She replied glancing back over at the laughing group of students. "I had some ideas for a number at Regionals, it's not quite what we're used to but I really think it could work and it would definitely set us apart from the competition."

"Sounds great, why don't you stop by my office during lunch?" He suggested. Rachel smiled and breathed deeply.

"Perfect."

New Directions would be declared the winner at Regionals, they would win and show everyone; Jesse, Sue, Karofsky that they were a force not to be reckoned with. Hell hath no fury like a diva scorned.

_3FINCHEL3_

Puck had snuck out his geometry class, that wasn't the part of his day that was unusual. It was the fact that instead of sleeping in his car he was looking for Rachel Berry. By process of elimination; the auditorium was empty as was the choir room he checked only other place he could think she would go. For some reason all the girls liked to hang out in the back room of the auditorium where the costumes were kept. Rachel was sitting on the desk writing on one of her notepads at an alarming rate. He'd seen Finn coax her into trying a Red Bull and she'd obviously been wired ever since.

"Hey Berry."

"Noah!" She yelped dropping her pen. Clearly Red Bull made her jumpy. "Did you need something?"

"Not really." He scratched the back of his head. "Just look, us Jews know more about guilt than anyone so I just wanted to say that what Jesse did sucked and Matt, Mike and I slashed his tires last night."

"Why?" She asked confused by this combination act of vandalism and revenge.

"For messing with you." He answered slowly as though it were obvious. "We protect our own and he had it coming. You're lucky Finn was with you, he told Matt he wanted to rip Jesse's legs off and use the bones as drumsticks."

Rachel wrinkled her nose at that somewhat vile image. "Ew. Although I don't condone illegal activities I guess what you guys did was sweet in a way. Thank you."

"Don't mention it." He shrugged it off. "We were going to do it soon anyway, that kid was annoying as hell."

She laughed, that was the great thing about breaking up with someone all their faults and quirks that you used to find charming were all of sudden the most annoying things on the planet. The two-hour Jesse Bashing discussion last night had definitely cured her of any illusions that she should waste any more tears over that guy. When Finn had left to get the ice cream the girls had put in the freezer Mercedes had seized the moment to declare that Jesse was obviously her rebound from Finn. Brittany had explained that according to Brooke on _One Tree Hill_ which was like the bible to the blonde girl, that you will always fall for the rebound guy but its not real love.

That of course had led to an impromptu discussion about _One Tree Hill_ and who was team Leyton and who was team Brucas. Rachel had actually watched the show since she had heard all about it and wanted to know what everyone was talking about and she was firmly Team Leyton as were Quinn, Mercedes, Tina and Brittany. Kurt and Santana were Team Brucas, which didn't surprise anyone. Finn had just sat and smiled helping himself to the ice cream, the only thing he could remember from watching the show with Quinn were the basketball scenes.

"You're not wrong." She agreed breaking away from her thoughts. "Can I ask you something?"

"Only if you never repeat what I say to anyone."

Rachel nodded her agreement and wondered how exactly to ask her question tactfully.

"Why haven't you asked Quinn to be your girlfriend yet?"

Puck looked surprised by her question but tried to shrug it off.

"You can't keep the Puckzilla tied down to one girl."

Obviously the sharing and caring portion of the conversation was over, fighting back a huff she grabbed her bag, she had to meet Mr. Schuester in ten minutes anyway.

"She likes you, I really think she'd keep the baby if she thought you'd be there for her as a family." She told him as she brushed past to get to the door.

He and Quinn were living together, in sin much to his mother's horror but his eye still wandered. He definitely felt something for the blonde, and it wasn't just a passing thing either. But to actually do the boyfriend-girlfriend thing? How was it possible that that scared him more than doing the father thing?

_3FINCHEL3_

**Thanks to everybody for still wanting to check out this story. I'm trying to update once I'm two chapters ahead so there wont be a massive lag between chapters. Have no fear I have only two or so chapters left AND I've been working on a Psych X over based at Regionals. Please let me know if anyone would be interested in what my brain conjures in that scenario!**


	6. Chapter 6

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own GLEE although the decision to include John Stamos as Emma's dentist does sound like me =P if he sings **_**Forever**_** I will officially forgive Fox for their terrible treatment of Dollhouse. But not Firefly they haven't got there just yet. **

_Ch6…_

_3FINCHEL3_

It had been a long day for Finn, Coach Tanaka was finally back from his 'vacation', which the whole school knew, was code for court mandated rehab program. When you pass out in your ex fiancée's front yard there's no chance that people wouldn't find out. Lima, Ohio thrived on gossip; he should know he'd been the topic of it enough. Coach had forced the team to run drills through lunch, he was sober but now he was mean, he obviously wasn't over the whole thing with Ms Pillsbury and Mr. Schuester, he, Matt, Mike and Puck had run suicides for the whole hour, lucky he hadn't eaten otherwise he would have hurled all over the floor.

Luckily he had gotten in his daily nap during health class, how he had been fooled by Quinn's hot tub story was no longer such a surprise. But even with the nap he was exhausted and he still had glee practice and homework, and Rachel was still staying at his house. He'd downed another two red bulls and now his foot wouldn't stop tapping.

"God! Finn would you stop trying to kick a hole in the floor to China!" Kurt snapped glaring at his almost step brother.

"Sorry dude." Maybe if he put all his concentration into stopping his foot from moving he wouldn't remember how tired he was.

"Okay guys, listen up!" Mr. Schuester called out as he entered the room. "Regionals are a little over a month away and we need to have our set list decided by the end of the week."

"Mr. Schuester and I discussed it before and we've decided that we need to decide this as group and quickly." Rachel announced standing up to face the group. "We need to focus on our strengths, we work well together because we respect each other's talent, that's what we need to win."

"So your assignment tonight." Mr. Schuester said taking over for Rachel. "Find songs that you think showcase our talent, we'll vote on them throughout the week."

Eying all the yawning students he ended the meeting early and told his students to get some sleep. Even Rachel who hated losing the structure of a routine was glad to see the meeting end early. Her homework for the last two days would have her busy for a while and she definitely needed to look into songs for their assignment. She'd had that idea for a story but now came the hard part.

"Hey Rachel." Mercedes called out. "Me and Kurt are going to the mall, you wanna come?"

"I'll give you a makeover." Kurt promised. "But this time I wont make you look like whore Barbie."

"Uh thanks." Rachel replied overwhelmed by their efforts to include her, last night was one thing but this was something else entirely. "But I have a lot of homework to catch up on."

"Anytime you want to ditch the _Golden Girls had a baby_ look I will clear my schedule." Kurt told her. "I guess I'll see you at dinner."

"Lucky we took two cars today." Finn muttered hoisting his bag over his shoulder and grabbing Rachel's with his other. "You sure you don't want to go with them?"

"I'm sure." She promised. "I like the way I dress and I already have everything I need why would I hang around the mall when I don't have to?"

"You know I've always wanted someone to explain that to me too." He told her. "Last weekend my mum and Kurt spend all of Saturday there and when they got back they were all tired like they'd run a marathon or something."

"I feel like I've run a marathon today." Rachel yawned loudly climbing into the front seat of the car. "If I didn't have so much homework I would probably just fall asleep right now."

"I know what you mean and I slept through health class." Her yawn was infectious and he found himself yawning loudly too. "What homework do you have?"

"I have to read the first three chapters of _The Grapes of Wrath_, two pages of trigonometry, translate a Spanish passage and research Chopin for music." She ticked off on her fingers. "And of course our glee homework."

"Well I have the Spanish and Trig work too how bout we do half each?" Finn suggested. "And we can download the audio book of that Grapes thing and listen to it while we work?"

"Isn't that kind of cheating?" Rachel had never cheated on a test; she'd never even copied someone else's homework.

"Not really, you know how to do that stuff right?" She nodded not sure where he is going with this. "So you're just taking a shortcut. Trust me Kurt and I do it all the time."

"You're a bad influence Finn Hudson." She teased.

"We're maximising our time." He corrected her proudly. "Rach you want to be a Broadway star, when are you ever going to use trigonometry?"

"Well I suppose that's true." She agreed. "And at least we'll have more time to work on our glee assignment."

"And sleep." He added yawning once more. "Don't forget sleep."

Her eyes drooping a little as they pulled into the driveway the mere thought of even opening her textbooks made her ache for her bed. She definitely wouldn't be forgetting sleep.

_3FINCHEL3_

Kurt stumbled down the steps into the basement a little over an hour later; Rachel was lying on her stomach across Finn's bed scribbling in a notebook while Finn sat on the floor using the bed as a desk.

"Hey, I thought you were going to the mall?" Finn said stretching his arms over his head.

"We weren't really into it." He answered hanging up his coat in his closet and taking a seat at his vanity. "Mercedes was too distracted to focus on shopping."

It was on the tip of her tongue to inquire as to why Mercedes was upset, usually the question would have already been asked but in spite of last night she was still pretty angry at the rest of the club.

"Did something happen?" She asked finally; just because they had shown no interest in her own wellbeing didn't mean she would be so callous to others.

"She thinks you hate her, no sane girl turns down a shopping trip." He informed her pulling at the mountains of bottles that cluttered the vanity.

"I don't hate her I just didn't see the point in going shopping when I already have everything I need." Rachel said reasonably not understanding the problem. "I don't hate anyone, well except for certain persons that shall remain nameless."

"Well can you tell her that, she and Tina are convinced that even after last night you still wish to make voodoo dolls of them." Kurt huffed rubbing something onto his face.

"I said I don't hate them. I never said I forgave them." She informed Kurt looking over Finn's head to where he was moisturizing. "That would require them to actually apologize instead of just thinking ice cream and Patrick Swayze would solve everything."

"The apology was implied!" He protested. _When didn't Swayze solve everything?_

Rachel rolled her eyes and turned back to her homework, she was over talking about this. Finn shrugged at his almost step brother and also returned to his homework they were almost finished and he had had ideas for glee interrupting his thoughts all afternoon.

"So that's it?" Kurt asked interrupting them again. "You're just going to be civil in glee and walk around in a huff the rest of the time."

"I'm not walking around in a huff." Rachel argued throwing her pencil at the bed, okay maybe that had been huffy. "I'm civil, for the sake of glee I'll be civil just don't expect anything else."

"What happened to starting over?" He wanted to know, he still wasn't her number one fan but given the moony eyes Finn developed whenever she was nearby he had to learn to at least tolerate her, that was why he had offered a makeover, she would be far easier to tolerate in better clothing.

"I am." She snapped shoving her books into her bag and zipping it shut. "I never said we'd start over as friends." Turning to Finn she sighed. "I should go by my house and get the mail and put out the bins."

"I'll drive you." He offered quickly.

He followed Rachel to the stairs and mouthed an apology to Kurt. Undeterred by Rachel's mood he pulled his phone out cursing when it slipped from his fingers. Damn lotions, with difficulty he typed out a message to his partner in crime, coded of course.

**BB away with Moondoggie, code 3 BF, needed. **

Translation

**Rachel and Finn are gone, she's still pissed and we need a back up plan ready. **

Not exactly how he had planned his night to go.

_3FINCHEL3_

Rachel had slept fitfully all night, nightmares of her fellow glee clubbers throwing slushies on her and laughing, Finn standing behind them with a sad expression. She's eventually given up any hope of sleep at about five am. Tossing and turning had made her cranky which made it the perfect time to go for a run. Running was actually quite therapeutic, she got to just go and listen to her music and not have to worry about school, slushies or anything else but the steady fall of her feet.

She loved the feeling of a good run, all the endorphins released into the bloodstream definitely helped. She'd ran by her house and put away the bins that had been emptied and collected the paper putting it inside the door. She was still on a running high when she returned to the Hudson-Hummel house where the ever present smell of hash browns and eggs filled the ear.

"You're up early." Burt greeted from the stove, scrambling up some eggs. "Hungry?"

She shook her head and helped herself to an apple on the table. "I'm all set, I really appreciate you letting me stay these past few nights."

"Our pleasure." He assured her heaping the eggs onto a plate. "After the way you looked out for Finn and Kurt it's the least we could do."

"I didn't do anything." She protested relishing the crunch as she bit into the apple.

"You may not know it but you did." He told her patting her hand. "Kurt wont be up for another twenty minutes or so if you get your butt in gear you might get a hot shower."

Her eyes lit up and she smiled. "After that run I definitely need a long one." She agreed.

Tiptoeing down the stairs she bit back a laugh at the two boys, Finn on his stomach and stretched all across his bed and Kurt curled up in a ball with a sleeping mask. She grabbed her toiletries and pulled the door shut behind her, a hot shower was definitely what she needed.

"Ah." She moaned happily, the hot needles of water were definitely doing wonders to her neck muscles. She couldn't believe the amount of hair products in the shower caddy, she presumed the shampoo and conditioner on the floor belonged to Finn, somehow she doubted he used kiwi-lime scented shampoo. Taking her time she lathered up the loofah and used her honey vanilla body wash. It was only when she could hear Kurt's voice and the banging on the door that she got out. Of course she'd only brought her toiletry bag in with her and not her clothes.

Wrapping a towel around herself and squeezing the excess water from her hair she flung open the door and smiled at Kurt. She could at least use his changing room shield to get dressed.

"Rachel?"

She wanted to die. She was blushing from her toes to her hair, of course Kurt's incessant knocking had woken Finn up and now he could see her wrapped in a towel that she was positive was shrinking.

"Morning Finn." She greeted trying to hide her flaming face. "I just forgot to grab my clothes, just pretend I'm not here."

"Like that'll happen." He mumbled. Right now the image of Rachel in his towel was infused everywhere, on his pillow, his walls, the back of his eyelids. He'd have it as his screensaver if he could.

"Did you say something?" Rachel asked poking her head around the flimsy divider Kurt had constructed between the rooms.

Finn shook his head quickly feeling much the pervert watching Rachel get dressed in silhouette. Sad as it was he could tell exactly what she was wearing just from the shadow.

"So do you think Mr. Schue will enjoy our suggestions?"

Finn almost jumped as she popped up again sitting on the edge of his bed and pulling on her shoes. Her hair was still wet and dripping, don't follow the droplets, don't follow the droplets.

"Uh yeah, of course." He agreed blindly bunching the blankets in front of him, he had already seen a lot of Rachel; she didn't need to see a lot of him too.

"Do you think I'm being too hard on them?"

She was oblivious to his discomfort; in fact she had scooted closer and was absently playing with the blankets, how subtle would it be if he slapped her hand away?

"On the club?" He stammered out. "I guess only you'd know, I mean it took me a while to feel like not punching Puck in the face every time I saw him. And I was pissed at everyone else for a while too but I talked to Sean about it and I guess it just really hit home to me that life is too short to go through it angry all the time."

"We should visit him tonight." She decided feeling a little guilty; she'd missed their lesson last week. "We could bring by apple pie."

"That's his favourite." Finn said surprised. "Have you been hanging out with Sean without me?"

"Maybe." She smiled mysteriously.

"Great now I have to worry about him stealing my girl." He joked the blush returning to Rachel's face.

"Your girl huh?" She smirked. "You should probably get up, looks like it's a cold shower morning for you."

Finn glanced down at his crotch beet red.

"Kurt's been in there a long time." She elaborated over her shoulder skipping up the stairs with her bag.

That wasn't awkward, at all.

_3FINCHEL3_


	7. Chapter 7

**DISCLAIMER: I am not Ryan Murphy. Seriously do I look like the kind of person who would not give us only minor Finchel kissage in the finale? **

_Ch7…_

_3FINCHEL3_

Miss Pillsbury was cleaning her office when Rachel slipped in during her free period. She waited for the guidance counsellor to finish wiping down the pencils in the jar and the brochures before she cleared her throat.

"Rachel! What brings you by?" She asked in a squeaky voice.

Fidgeting in her seat, Rachel picked imaginary lint from her skirt. "I need your advice."

"Well that is what I'm here for." Emma told her trying to relax.

"I wasn't sure if it was okay given your fight with Mr. Schuester, you haven't been by to watch us rehearse in a while and I-"

"First and foremost I am here for the students regardless of my relationship with Will." She interrupted blushing scarlet. "Is this about Glee club?"

"Sort of." She hedged. "I'm sure you know all about the Jesse debacle." She rolled her eyes, she hated to bring up her temporary lapse in sanity. "And Finn informed me that you know about what happened with everyone shortly after that."

"Yes hmm." Emma nodded, part of being a guidance counsellor was just letting the kids talk, it was actually the thing she was best at. Apparently she had expressive eyes that made people want to tell her their life story.

"I just don't know how I'm supposed to react. On one hand I want to scream and shout at them and then on the other hand I feel like just shrugging it off, I wasn't totally surprised that they didn't care. They only ever care when it affects them." Rachel played with her hands. "I don't want to be a bitter person who hates everyone but I feel like if I just let it go I'm saying that its okay for them to treat me like dirt."

"Why do you think this is so hard for you?" Emma asked resisting the urge to reach across and take Rachel's hand.

"I thought we were friends." She answered quietly. "I didn't think they would be so callous. It was like a metaphorical slushie only this time it was thrown by someone who mattered."

"I think you need to tell them that." She told Rachel gently patting her shoulder.

"They didn't even apologize." She exclaimed anger of course seeping back in. it was a defence mechanism she had seen a hundred times, emotions equal vulnerability. Anger is a safer choice.

"They might surprise you." Emma said looking out her window at Mr. Schuester who was frantically signalling her. Sadly she didn't understand frantic Spanish teacher.

"Rachel! Didn't anyone tell you? Emergency Glee rehearsal in the auditorium now." Will winked at Emma careful to make sure Rachel missed it.

"I'm sorry ." She apologized quickly. "I haven't seen anyone from Glee all day and my phone is flat."

"That's okay Rachel." He assured her. "Just go meet the others I have to talk to Miss Pillsbury for a minute."

She looked between the two and left without another word, the will they wont they relationship of Miss Pillsbury and Mr Schuester was a favourite topic of conversation amongst the glee clubbers, everyone was for it happening and no one wanted to get in the way if it did. Rushing as fast as her Mary Janes allowed her Rachel ran to the auditorium fuming silently at being late to a glee session.

"Rachel." Finn greeted loitering outside the door, he wasn't exactly James Bond at the signal to the others that she was there, a neon sign would have been subtler but Rachel chose to ignore it.

"Hi Finn, sorry I'm late I had a meeting with Miss Pillsbury." She explained in a rush. "You guys haven't started without me have you? I already told text Puck last night that _Do You Think I'm Sexy_ is definitely not an appropriate song!"

"Rachel, relax!" He order laughing and shaking her shoulders slightly. "I'm pretty sure Kurt would shot that idea down even if you were there." He could just imagine the boys face if Puck ever uttered the words in front of him. "We're just getting started now, come on."

The lights were dimmed down low with only spot lights on the stage, there were seats set up and all the self proclaimed Gleeks were seated, Miss Pillsbury was sitting next to Mr Schuester at the directors podium and every eye in the place was on her.

"We've been in this club for nearly eight months." Quinn began rubbing her stomach. "Believe me I know it's been that long."

Rachel hiccupped with laughter and took a seat keeping a death grip on Finn's hand.

"It's been a pretty crazy time." Tina added. "I lost my stutter."

"I kissed a girl." Artie said smiling at his girlfriend.

"I knocked up a girl." Puck as always breaking the mood, Quinn being too far away had to be satisfied with the punches in the arm that Matt and Mike gave him.

"What we're trying to say is." Mercedes spoke over them rolling her eyes. "Things have changed, we've changed."

"And that's at least partly because of you." Kurt continued, he hated to admit it but it was true. "You pushed us even when we wanted to kill you."

"So we just wanted to thank you." Mike said bowing his head slightly.

"We may not always show it." Mercedes took over again biting on her lip. "But you are our friend Rachel, and sometimes we forget how fragile you are."

Santana and Brittany stood up and pulled out a banner that said **We're Sorry!** The little sad face was what did it for Rachel, and she started to cry.

Brad walked out and started to play a sweet melody on the piano, he really always was around.

"_I like the way you're not afraid.  
You got the world planned in your mind"_

Puck started singing out clearly winking at Rachel who couldn't help but blush.

"_People say you cannot do it.  
Well they don't know a friend like you"_

Quinn sang next her eyes giving the apology Rachel had always wanted.

"_The boy you love has gone away  
Still too young to know his heart"_

Kurt sang taking over and making no qualms of pointing out Finn who was now blushing as red as Rachel had been earlier, she smiled, something that was shared by the group.

"_He'll return his love renewed  
Cause he'll never find a friend like you"_

Mercedes grabbed Kurt's hand and finished the verse nodding again at Finn, now even the tips of his ears were red.

"_When I had no one to call  
all the world had shut me down"_

Tina sang softly her eyes searching Rachel's, she would know why she had wanted to sing that lyrics. Nudging Artie her boyfriend picked up from her and sang his part.

"_I showed up at your door so blue  
thank god I had a friend like you"_

Matt and Mike had started a soft beat box to accompany the piano but paused to sing the next two lines their voices mixing together well.

"_Many times I've gone without  
a home, a meal, a pair of shoes"_

Banner still between them Santana and Brittany sang the last two lines while the rest of the group stood up and joined them.

"_If you had three, you'd give me two  
there aint no other friend like you"_

Finn had long since lost feeling in his hand, he wasn't even worrying about if he would ever feel it again, he was too focussed on Rachel's face. Tears streaked her cheeks and her eyes, usually so bright and shining were searching the faces of the gleeks on the stage. He was still unsure as to how exactly they had managed to talk Santana into this, he suspected a scary amount of blackmail, threatening and bribery; he felt safer not knowing.

Standing slowly Rachel pulled Finn up with her and walked purposefully up to the stage, starting with Artie she hugged each person whispering something to them so softly that it was inaudible to anyone but the two. Finn just stood back and watched as she made her way around the stage her tears mingling with Mercedes and Tina's. Even Kurt had a few creeping out of his eye though he would deny it vehemently later when called on it.

Rachel laughed freely when instead of accepting her hug Matt and Mike picked her up between them and sandwiched her in a massive three-way bear hug. Even Puck hugged her without a trace of awkwardness that was left for the Cheerios. Brittany hugged parking metres so there was no drama there, Santana hugged back stiffly and pushed away within five seconds; Quinn was last.

Rachel had never disliked Quinn, wondered why she hated her, felt the need to belittle her but never hated her. Since her weekly meetings with Miss Pillsbury; school ordered due to her 'situation' she had come to accept her feelings toward Rachel. The usual reason for bullying; jealousy, resentment etc.

Rolling her eyes Quinn stepped forward and wrapped her arms around Rachel, which was difficult with a baby bump in between them. Blonde hair shielding her face she leant down close to Rachel's ear.

"Do you think we could start over now?"

Rachel pulled out of the hug and nodded, that was enough. She'd always wished her life was a movie, some fabulous Broadway play. Having your High School Glee Club serenade you with an apology was definitely a befitting chapter of either of those wishes. She'd never dreamed it would happen, who really expects those kinds of things in real life? But when you're dealing with an intense, diva-esque and dramatic girl like Rachel Berry everything you do should be as such.

_3FINCHEL3_

Glee club was obviously a very different place that afternoon, for once everyone was there on time and everyone was smiling. Artie was as always in his usual spot with Tina next to him and Kurt and Mercedes right behind. Quinn was on the other side of Mercedes joining in on their conversation and laughing. Santana and Brittany were comparing iPods with Matt and Mike and giggling over the more embarrassing additions to their playlists. The only people who were quiet were Finn and Rachel, she was standing in front of the piano and just watching, a smile pulling at her face. Finn was watching her, that same smile pulling on his own face. The other person who was silent? Puck he was sitting in his chair and staring at the door obviously waiting for something or someone.

Mr. Schuester walked in a few moments later clapping once to quiet the club, he held as usual a stack of papers but these were important papers. They contained all the suggestions they had given him about their regionals set.

"Okay guys! Now that we are back." He looked sideways at Rachel who blushed slightly and took her seat next to Finn not even noticing his arm around the back of the chair. "I think you can all agree that we should focus all our energy on smoking the competition out of the water!"

The group cheered at that, winning that trophy was like validation that they were special, that they were a part of something special.

"I've collected all your suggestions and I've narrowed it down a bit, any last minute additions?" He asked hoping there wouldn't be, he'd spent a good portion of his lunch sifting through lyrics. "Great, so here's what we have so far."

Turning around he wrote the songs he thought would work best on the white board.

"He took our suggestion!" Rachel whispered to Finn clutching his arm in excitement. His skin tingled and smiled back linking their fingers, he cheered inwardly when she didn't pull away.

Art of Love – Guy Sebastian and Jordin Sparks

When You're Gone – Bryan Adams and Melanie C

I Want To Hold Your Hand – The Beatles

Just My Imagination – Babyface ad Gwenyth Paltrow

Remember The Days Of The Old School Yard – Cat Stevens

Times Like These – Foo Fighters

Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic – The Police

Smooth – Santana and Rob Thomas

Dancing In The Moonlight – Toploader

Drops of Jupiter – Train

"Now guys, these are just the ones that I thought would work best. Here's your assignment. Working in groups or pairs put together a routine using one of these songs, we'll perform at the end of next week."

Rachel's eyes sparkled and she reached for Finn's hand, they'd be partners she didn't even need to ask, it was just assumed. The next few days would definitely be gruelling, he felt a little sorry for Rachel, she'd have bruised toes for sure.

_3FINCHEL3_

**Hey guys, as you can probably expect the end is nigh for this story, but how shall it end? Well you'll see.**


	8. Chapter 8

**DISCLAIMER: THY NAME IS NOT RYAN MURPHY…STILL WAITING FOR THE CONFIRMATION OF NAME CHANGE.**

_Ch8…_

_3FINCHEL3_

He was surprised he hadn't lost his voice with all the rehearsals Rachel had scheduled for them. Of course that could be because of the teas and home throat soothers that she insured they drank every day. School had been the same as usual; people still stared at the Gleeks like they were something that they had stood on. Although the slushie facials had been dramatically reduced after Karofsky had thrown one on Rachel and he and Puck had taken the machine and emptied it on him.

"What are you thinking about?"

Finn jumped slightly just barely missing whacking his head on the back of his bed; he thought Kurt and Rachel were still sleeping but apparently not. Holding a finger to his lips he motioned to the lone sleeping body in the room, he had learnt the hard way not to wake him up. Rachel nodded and cocked an eyebrow at his bed, taking a minute to understand he lifted up his blanket and she crept over careful not to hit anything on her way. Lying on their sides facing each other they could talk without risking Kurt's wrath.

"How are you doing?" He whispered; it was only a week ago today that the debacle occurred. Rachel tugged on the covers and burrowed them under her chin biting down on her lip.

"Guilty, angry and a little hungry." Rachel answered honestly. Finn looked at her quizzically and she bit back a sigh. "I feel guilty because even though I want to perform amateur throat surgery on Jesse for what he did to me, I'm not more upset about our relationship ending."

"I guess I don't have to ask about the angry part." He muttered, propping up his head with his hand he pushed back the hair that had fallen in Rachel's face. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Rachel shook her head. "I don't think I need to." She paused picking over her words carefully. "The last couple of weeks before the whole debacle I'd started doubting the relationship. I guess hindsight really is twenty, twenty." She mused.

"Hindsight?"

"It's like foresight but without a future." She quoted, her dad's had gone through a very serious Kevin Kline phase and _Life As A House_ had been her favourite. "It means that you can look back and realize things that were obvious but you hadn't noticed before, it's like understanding everything but only after it's happened."

"What kind of things?" He asked tickling her feet with his own, her legs were so short compared to his it wasn't a fair fight.

"Like I should have listen to Daddy when he said Jesse wasn't good enough for me and I was just dating him so I wouldn't dwell on how much you hurt me." Rachel held back a giggle. "He really didn't like him at all, and Daddy likes everyone. That should have been my second clue."

"What should have been the first?" Finn held his breath, he didn't really know if this was something he wanted to hear.

"He transferred to McKinley just to go out with me." She scoffed. "My life isn't some stupid teen soap on the CW, that kind of massive change really only means one thing."

"That he's psychotic?" He joked pretending to gasp in pain when Rachel nudged him in the stomach.

"I just wish I'd listened to my heart instead of my stupid pride. I knew something wasn't right with him but I was too determined to prove to everyone that I was fine with everything that I ignored it." She pulled her hair around her finger twirling it carefully.

"Don't beat yourself up Rachel, he took advantage of you. You see the best in people even when, no especially when you shouldn't, that's not stupid, it just means you're a good person. Better than most." He threw his arm around her pulling her closer to his chest. "It's one of the things I like most about you."

So far she had managed to avoid the question of just what they were to each other. Finn had been nothing if not clear about his feelings and intentions towards her, he'd even come to her house with slightly burnt sugar cookies and talked to both of her fathers apologizing for his behaviour towards Rachel earlier. Probably another reason why they disliked Jesse, he would never apologize about anything much less bake cookies.

"I like you too Finn." She said quietly, it was the only way she would be able to say what was needed. "You have a good heart, that's what I like most about you."

"So it's not my dancing that swept you off your feet?"

"More like permanently bruised them." She retorted swatting at his hands. He grabbed them, cradling them in his own lacing their fingers and marvelling at the fit. "Finn?"

Her breath hitched and she forced herself to look up and into his eyes, those stupid eyes that could never lie. He had innocence in his eyes that gave him away whenever he tried to be tough. She half expected Kurt to wake up, or his alarm to go off or someone to come banging down the stairs anything to interrupt this movie moment. Finn seemed frozen, almost hypnotized by her lips just staring at them almost in wonder.

This was how it was supposed to feel, stomach clenching fear, but the good kind. Ever so gently she fluttered her lips across his, it was a fairy's touch barely more than her breath on his lips. The heat seared through him and pooled in his groin, his arms wrapped around the petite slice of a girl pulling her flush against his body as he pressed his lips to hers hoping at least some of the heat he was feeling would seep into it.

She bit down gently on his bottom lip and sucked it into her mouth humming lightly, that afternoon spent researching sexual turn on's and assorted things for their _Push It_ number was definitely proving to be beneficial. Calling on her ballet training she swung them around so that Finn was on top and she could hook her legs around his waist, she needed to release the pressure she was feeling, increase the friction. Finn gulped in a breath at Rachel's movements, he was seconds away from Cinco De Mayo.

She felt him start to pull away but she locked her legs around him tight crossing her ankles and pressing their lower bodies together more fully, small little moans bubbling in her throat. Delicately she ran her hand down his bare back, she loved that he slept shirtless, it was just a raking of her nails, but that combined with her mouth sucking on his collarbone caused Finn to go over the edge. She could feel the sticky wetness through the thin material of his PJ bottoms but it didn't bother her, if anything she was proud that she could illicit that kind of response in him.

"Sorry." He started to apologize thoroughly embarrassed.

"What for? I take it as a compliment." She told him brushing his hair away form his forehead and tracing a finger down his cheek. "But you should probably clean up before Kurt commandeers the bathroom."

Well his brother wouldn't have to worry about him wasting all the hot water; he definitely needed a cold shower after that.

_3FINCHEL3_

Rachel had turned off her phone fifteen minutes after she had entered school, she couldn't handle another message from Mercedes or Tina demanding she tell them everything. Kurt was definitely going to keep his crown as the Gossip King of McKinley; they'd only admitted their feelings to each other that morning! Coming to a stop at her locker she found out the hard way that it wasn't just her friends that were interested in her relationship status. Her whole body went slack and her books clattered to the ground, she glanced up and down the hallway trying to spy the artist, the paint was still wet but no one seemed to scream 'jerk!'

"Hey Rach!"

Perfect, there was no way she would be able to distract Finn enough to not notice her newly decorated locker. His smile vanished when he saw the sadness in her eyes coupled with the blaring red paint that stretched across the ugly metal the words 'Hudson's Whore' staring back at them. The words she could live with, she'd learnt long ago to ignore the name-calling that was a daily occurrence for her. She'd even managed to get past the pornographic pictures that were sketched out on the bathroom walls. But this was different. This was a photo of her, obviously taken in the girls' locker room, in the process of getting changed.

Finn ripped the photo down quickly shooting poisonous glances to everyone near them targeting anyone with a smile on their face. He ripped it up turning the paper into confetti, Rachel cracked at the exact same moment the paper started to fall. She didn't dissolve into tears, she didn't collapse and begin to howl, she felt a white heat build within her and seep into her skin. Reaching upward she pulled Finn's face down to hers and pressed their lips together.

Catcalls and wolf whistles sounded out around them but Rachel ignored them all, pulling away slowly she licked her lips. Finn stared at her in confusion; he was not prepared for that reaction from her.

"Rach?" He whispered their faces still just millimetres apart.

"Just pretend." She told him quietly. "Don't let them think it bothers us."

"We can't just let them get away with this! They took photos of you!"

"Whoever 'they' are will get exactly what's coming to them." She set her mouth in a firm line. "And I can hazard a guess as to whom our wannabe Anne Liebowitz is."

Pulling away from Finn, Rachel knelt down and collected her books not paying her locker any attention, shoving them in her bag she turned back to her almost boyfriend and wanted to smile at his adorably clueless expression.

"I need to talk to Miss Pillsbury, will you come with me?"

Unable to do much more than nod he grabbed her bag and threw his free arm around her shoulder glaring at anyone who came into his eye line. _Always_. He would always go with her.

"Rachel!"

The red headed guidance counsellor jumped, the petite brunette was in her intense mode and had stalked right in barely knocking, Finn pulled the door shut behind them standing protectively behind Rachel's chair, he was going to be by her side at all times from now on.

"Hi, I'm sorry to just barge in but this situation is of the upmost importance." Rachel breathed deeply to calm herself employing yoga techniques that she had relied on before.

"Is there a problem with your friends still?" She asked hoping her answer was no, she had been teary watching the kids apology to the girl.

"No it's something else." Emma inwardly sighed with relief. "I've always been raised to be kind to others, to never be cruel and to turn the other cheek but the miscreants at this school have left me unable to turn anymore. Someone defaced my locker with words I refuse to repeat and pasted a picture of me half naked on there as well. This person has disrespected me as a fellow student and human being as well as violated my privacy."

"Oh my."

"The photo was taken in the girls locker room, I feel so degraded, and who knows how many people have seen this!"

Finn's blood boiled at her words, he would personally see to it that every person who had seen it would forget, he was sure Puck and the guys would have no problems helping him.

"Do you know who did it?" Emma asked, her mind was already reeling with the possible repercussion of this, all of them not good.

"The amateur photographer is probably Jacob Ben Israel, he has a crush on me and has made his desire known to me in several unsavoury ways." She answered shuddering lightly.

"The graffiti was probably put there by Karofsky or Azimio. They make it a point to terrorise the glee club." Finn added completely certain of their involvement. "And uh they've called Rachel what was written on her locker before."

It had been in the locker room after gym; it had been during that short time they had dated when he was so messed up. He had been a funk but no so down that he hadn't taken the time to give Karofsky a black eye and Azimio a busted lip. He'd managed to walk away clean since he had been taken over by the spirit of Rocky or something, Matt had pulled him off before he had done serious damage, Mike had said it was the sickest thing he had ever seen, he thought Finn had been possessed. He hadn't told Rachel, he didn't want to see her cry.

"Well our next step would obviously be to talk to Principal Figgins." She started though doubting what good it would do, he wasn't exactly the scariest of people.

"My father's are well acquainted with the local chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union and I know that graffiti of that kind can be considered libel in our justice system, the photo was taken without my knowledge or consent and in a girls locker room which is against school rules."

"Are you saying that you are going to file harassment charges against these boys?" Emma asked feeling equal parts terror, shock and pride. It wasn't very often that students actually stood up against bullying and she knew from her talks with Will that Rachel had suffered more than most.

"I haven't decided that yet." She answered honestly. "If appropriate action is taken by Principal Figgins I should have no reason to. I also know that if I were to build a case for harassment I would not be the only person who would be involved. I'm not the first person in this school that has been targeted by those Neanderthals and if someone doesn't stand up to them I won't be the last."

"Okay Rachel." Emma breathed out slowly. "You two should go to class, I'll speak with Principal Figgins, just so you know it will be my recommendation for the people involved to be expelled."

"Thank you."

Finn nodded, mouthing his own thanks to the mild mannered guidance counsellor that he knew Mr. Schuester was gaga over. The hallways were empty; one look at his phone and he realized that they had already missed the first twenty minutes of class.

"Do you want to practice our song in the auditorium?" He suggested, he could feel Rachel putting up the bricks, building the wall she used to hide her real emotions; to pretend like everything that happened didn't effect her.

She smiled gratefully at him laying her head against his side as they walked, that was exactly what she needed. When she was in her element, belting out a song with Finn where in that moment it was only the two of them.

"Yes."

He wasn't the smartest kid in his class, and he wasn't the dumbest he at least knew the square root of four wasn't rainbows. But he could make Rachel smile, that was worth more to him than an A, he'd need to know how to make her happy in the real world and he was almost certain he'd never need to know algebra to get by in life.

_3FINCHEL3_

**So how do you like it? Just who was behind Rachel's locker attack? And how will the Glee Club respond? Only 2 chapters left!**


	9. Chapter 9

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own GLEE but nonetheless am very excited for its collective 19 EMMY nominations, special kudos to Jane Lynch, Chris Colfer, Mike O'Malley, Kristen Chenoweth, Neil Patrick Harris, Matt Morrison and of course Lea Michele, all richly deserved!**

_Ch9…_

_3 FINCHEL 3_

For once in his life Puck had decided to keep his mouth shut, well at least until the people he was talking about were no longer in earshot. The Glee grapevine of Kurt to Mercedes, Mercedes to Quinn, Quinn to Brittany and then Brittany to everyone had worked its usual magic. Kurt had heard from Lauren Zizes who'd heard it from Liz Schneider who was in the hallway about what had happened at Rachel's locker. Artie, possibly from watching a lot of CSI had already taken pictures and scrapings of the paint for 'evidence', the yellow hazard tape was probably a little overdramatic but it suited Berry so no one had said anything. Tina had told Mr. Schuester who was already screaming at Principal Figgins, they could hear him all the way in the choir room, the whole club minus Finn and Rachel had ditched class and ended up there.

"Where is Baby Barbra anyway?" Mercedes asked.

"My guess is on the phone to her lawyer." Kurt replied. "Or looking for Jacob to kill him, you know he is cousins with Jesse right?"

"St. Jackass." Matt muttered. "He's got to be behind this, he probably got his pervy cousin to do his dirty work for him."

"Like that kid needs an excuse to take naked photos of Rachel." Mike added shuddering. He just had to have the seat behind Jacob in Computer Studies, watching him edit photos so that they were borderline porn of him and Rachel was not his idea of fun, although wiping the memory from his computer at the end of every class definitely was.

"I heard Jesse lost his scholarship and Ms. Corcoran is being charged with a whole bunch of stuff." Mercedes gossiped.

"Yeah well I think it was Karofsky and his dickless friends." Puck announced. "Tagging a locker? He may as well have signed his name, he's been running that gag since we were in grade school."

"And he does call Rachel that." Matt agreed. "You guys thinking what I'm thinking?"

"Braveheart?" Mike asked hopefully, it was the most epic of all plans.

"Not yet." Puck told him also feeling the disappointment; he loved going Braveheart. "I think this calls for Young Guns."

Not as popular, definitely not as hands on violent but it focussed quite heavily on the whole personal justice thing.

"I'm in." Artie said wheeling over to Puck. "They went too far this time and any plan that pays homage to the brilliance of Estevez, Sutherland and Sheen I must be in on."

"Ditto." Mike agreed pumping his fist against Matt's. Young Guns was definitely the messier plan, but the end result while not several limbs cut off and strewn everywhere would guarantee an even worse kind of humiliation.

"Do y'all know what they're talking about?" Mercedes asked Quinn who was studying the four guys carefully.

"Some kind of revenge plan." She replied, she wasn't fluent in jock but she was getting more coherent in Puck, unfortunately not coherent enough to know whether or not she needed to talk him out of this.

"What are you guys doing in here?"

Brittany smiled happily, probably wasn't the smartest idea to make her the lookout. Mr. Schuester simply stared at his students waiting for an answer. Artie nudged at Puck's legs and picked up a guitar motioning for him to do the same.

"Just practicing a new song idea Mr. Schue." He lied strumming the acoustic guitar easily the riff instantly recognisable to Puck who joined in. Mike and Matt quickly abandoned them for the safety of the seats which earned them dirty looks from Puck who would probably have glared them down for the whole song but he was needed to sing.

"_I wake up in the morning  
And I raise my weary head  
I have an old coat for a pillow  
and the earth was last nights bed." _

Mr. Schue nodded at them, he knew these kids well enough to know they weren't **just **practicing a song; something was up.

"_I don't know where I'm going  
only god knows where I've been  
I'm a devil on the run  
a six gun lover  
a candle in the wind, yeah!" _

"Very nice." Mr. Schue complimented them cutting off the impromptu performance maybe we should add that to our Regionals suggestions." He glanced at the group. "But in the mean time how about one of you guys tell me what you all are planning to do about Rachel's locker?"

"I'm shocked that you would assume we are planning anything." Kurt exclaimed. "Beyond shocked, indignant, outraged at such a suggestion."

Mr. Schuester held up his hand to silence him, he wasn't buying the denial act.

"I know you guys are planning something but don't. I just spent the last hour arguing with Figgins about getting those idiots expelled."

"You know who did it?" Tina interrupted; they hadn't heard anyone being pulled out of class over the PA.

"We have suspects." He replied vaguely. "But Figgins doesn't really think expulsion is the right way to go and according to Emma if things don't go that way he wont have to worry about pissing off the PTA so much as a whole bunch of lawyers Rachel's dads hire."

"They're really active in the ACLU." Kurt told everyone paling slightly. "They took me to a meeting."

"Is anyone else getting a really bad feeling about this?" Matt asked raising his own hand.

"Yeah my tummy is all gargly." Brittany agreed.

"That's because you had cheese at lunch." Santana corrected her; Mike raised his eyebrows at her confused. "She's lactose intolerant."

Well that made more sense.

"Guys I need you to keep an ear out, if you hear anything about this come to me, Miss Pillsbury or Principal Figgins. Alright?"

Everyone agreed quickly which did little to calm the sense of foreboding that had taken over Mr. Schuester. They were definitely still planning something but he wasn't exactly going to stop them, he'd already told them not to pursue it, was it really his fault if they didn't take his advice?

_3 FINCHEL 3_

Rachel had employed patience; it was a virtue after all. She waited patiently for two days for something to happen, for her locker to be fixed, for people to stop giggling in the halls, for the stupid hockey team to stop leering at her. And especially for Jacob to stop asking her for an interview, clothing optional. The thing about patience, while its good and all it doesn't really get the job done. As a courtesy she stopped by Miss Pillsbury's office and told her what she was going to do, the red head who was rapidly gaining in confidence gave Rachel her full support and then immediately ran to find Mr. Schuester.

"You cannot just barge in here unannounced Ms. Berry!" Principal Figgins reprimanded her standing up from behind his desk.

"I can assure you I am well within my rights to seek an audience with my principal especially when he insists on disregarding the privacy and mental wellbeing of one of his students based on that students social standing." Rachel said in rapid fire English her lung capacity coming in handy, she hadn't even had to pause to take a breath. "And furthermore I find it disgusting that nothing has been done to remove the insulting graffiti on my locker. And even less has been done to punish the people responsible. I have been victimized by these neanderthal IQ challenged bullies for too long without action; id like to see how well you run this school when every news network I can contact is here asking why you allow such goings on."

Her tirade over she gave Principal Figgins a tight smile and walked as briskly out of his office as possible trying to make a statement that didn't say diva storm out. She kept walking all the way down the hall and into the choir room, it was time for part two of her plan.

"Rachel!" Tina yelped alerting everyone else to her appearance, Mr. Schuester and Miss Pillsbury looked up from their small huddle in the corner, the latter blushing with embarrassment.

"Fellow glee clubbers as you have undoubtedly noticed nothing has been done to ensure the miscreants who tormented me are apprehended. I have just informed Principal Figgins that neither my fathers nor I will stand for it. As we speak my fathers are utilizing every contact they have in the ACLU to rally the media outlets of the many injustices Figgins has bestowed upon this school."

"Rachel what are you talking about?" Mr. Schuester asked for pretty much everyone, Brittany was rubbing her head it hurt from trying to follow Rachel's train of thought, she was driving a horse carriage in comparison.

"Until action has been carried out to ensure that this type of behaviour will not be tolerated, and that Principal Figgins delegates equal funds to all parts of school life I'm no longer a student here." She told him, well it wouldn't be Rachel Berry if it wasn't dramatic.

"You're dads are letting you skip out of school because of this?" Puck whistled. "Sign me up."

"It's a protest and you are all welcome to join me because I wont be back until things change around here." She flashed them all a dazzling smile and walked out to meet Finn who was waiting for her in his car, his mother had already agreed to boycott the school especially when she learnt Rachel's dads had hired a tutor for any students who decided to join the protest.

"Puck where are you going?" Quinn asked when the footballer stood and headed for the door.

"Where the anarchy is." He replied. "Matt, Mike you guys in?"

The two best friends bumped fists and quickly followed after Puck, Kurt wisely kept his mouth shut at how much the three resembled T Birds in that moment. Quinn pulled herself up and hurried after them, that idiot was her ride home.

"Mr. Schue?" Tina asked looking for some semblance of guidance from the only adult they trusted, he'd never stopped her from reading Stephen King because he sounds too much like a devil worshipper.

"I think you all know the right thing to do." He answered holding out his arm for Emma. She accepted it gratefully and the two walked out leaving the club to themselves.

"Why are we still sitting here?" Mercedes wondered aloud. "Rachel's right if this had happened to a Cheerio or one of the jocks they'd have been an announcement at half time. I don't know bout y'all but I'm with Rachel, us divas got to stick together."

"Where Mercedes goes I go." Kurt sighed wistfully locking arms with his best friend; silently Artie and Tina followed them out leaving only Santana and Brittany.

"Oh hell if everyone else is doing it." Santana grumbled pulling Brittany with her. It was stupid but you stick together, she didn't have to like the girl but she'd stand by her, she'd do the same for them.

_3 FINCHEL 3_

_Sorry for the wait guys, I was out of town visiting family =D_


	10. Chapter 10

**DISCLAIMER: I am still not Ryan Murphy, although I do have Urkel locked in my basement building a body swapping machine CUE: ****evil laughter**

_FINCHEL_

Some people would think that boycotting your school would mean sleeping in. These people have never been to a boycott hosted by Rachel Berry and her fathers. Not surprisingly the Berry home had been turned into a base camp for the boycott, the den had been turned into a make shift classroom where the glee club had their mandatory study hours while upstairs the parents worked upstairs, Carole and Burt had immediately volunteered their time when Kurt admitted to them some of the less savoury aspects of his school life. No one had been surprised when Mr. Schuester and Miss Pillsbury showed up on the second day with poster boards and magic markers, the jazz band had also shown up that day under the guidance of Artie, more students who had also faced the humiliation of the slushie facial showed up over the days, Lauren, Suzy, the other girls who were obsessed with twilight.

The thing popular people forget, they're the minority, the cheerios and the jocks could have the school but who would they pick on when all the so called geeks, freaks and Lima losers were nowhere to be found? At the rate the school was emptying thanks to the negative press the boycott was garnering they would soon find out.

"What do you think of this?" Finn held up his poster for Rachel to inspect.

"Don't Stop Believing in Equality for all!" She read aloud with a smile. "Perfect."

"It was Matt's idea." Finn nodded to his teammate who was busy sketching out slogans on the boards before handing them down the assembly line to Mercedes and Quinn who were painting them. Kurt was near them painting the slogans on shirts for them to wear, Artie and Tina were on the computers making websites, facebook groups and doing pretty much anything so that people would know.

"Great news honey!" Leroy announced coming into the den with Mr. Schuester behind him. "Rod Rimmington has invited us onto his show to discuss our protest!"

"Doesn't he anchor the show that Miss Sylvester is on?" Mike asked.

"That's how Sue see's it." Santana piped in with the hand gesture. "She's probably going to challenge you to a dual on air."

"I think I can handle it." Leroy assured the group. "I've faced scarier people than Sue Sylvester."

"Hey Berry you never told me your dad wrestled alligators." Puck joked nudging Rachel who frowned.

"I was talking about my parents, I'd like to see any of you fellows come out to your parents and tell them you're marrying a Jewish man." Leroy chuckled. "My father was a minister!"

"Sue Sylvester is a pit bull daddy, to beat her you'll have to fight dirty." Rachel informed him. "Mr. Schuester I think in preparation we should have a mock interview and debate, Santana can be Sue."

Santana was going to protest but she was the most like the cheerleading coach after all.

"Let's go Mr. Schuester unless you need some time fixing that hair of yours in a way that doesn't make you resemble K.D Lang."

Everyone gaped at her and she shrugged with a smirk making Sue's trademark 'c'.

"Just getting into the character."

"Okay that was scary." Tina shuddered looking over to Mr. Schuester who was patting his hair self-consciously.

"I'll start writing out practice questions and topics, Miss Pillsbury can mediate, be ready to go on by four." She skipped out of the room and headed for her room, she'd need quiet for this.

"I'll help her." Finn offered before he too disappeared. Kurt let out an over exaggerated sigh.

"And I'll watch them, but if I see anything that could be construed as cute or fluffy I am not to be held responsible for my actions."

Mercedes used to her best friends theatrics didn't even look up from the poster she was painting, Tina however was staring after him, that flounce out was so Rachel Berry it was scary.

"Come on Leroy, let's get started I have a feeling Rachel wont let any of us leave until you're prepared to the point of ridiculousness." Mr. Schuester said clapping Rachel's father on the shoulder.

"And she thinks you don't understand her." Leroy mumbled following the teacher and leaving the glee club alone.

_FINCHEL_

Finn tried to conceal the yawn, he should have known after brainstorming questions with Rachel that she wouldn't let the mock debate end until she was completely satisfied. Leroy looked remarkably awake but then again he'd had sixteen years of Rachel and was probably accustomed to this, Santana and everyone else on the other hand were not. Miss. Pillsbury had taken pity on the group and called for a break, he was amazed there weren't Kurt and Puck shaped holes in the doors.

"You're doing great Daddy, I just think we need to tweak your answer about what we hope to achieve and it'll be perfect." She complimented fixing the tie and blazer she had chosen for his outfit, Kurt had insisted on running camera tests on them first and recruited Artie to help.

"Thanks sweetie." Leroy kissed her forehead and yawned. "I think we should send everybody home, we can continue this tomorrow after a good nights sleep."

Rachel frowned, Leroy was far less susceptible to the power of her pout, glancing around she begrudgingly noted just how tired everyone looked and gave her acquiesce.

"Okay, I'll let everyone know." She skipped off to tell everyone and the room emptied within minutes.

"Rachel relax your dad is going to blow Sue out of the water." Finn promised throwing his arm around his girlfriend. "And those assholes will get expelled and you'll never have to deal with them again."

"And we can throw a slushie at them?" She asked grouchily hugging him tightly.

"A gallon gulp slushie."

"I'm holding you to that Finn Hudson." In spite of herself she yawned and allowed Finn to swing her up into his arms and carry her up the stairs to her bed. "I wish you could stay with me."

"Me too." He whispered dropping a kiss on her cheek, of course before he did that he would have to own up to that whole Santana thing. He knew that was going to come back to bite him on the ass. He could try to appeal to Santana's human side but it was rarely seen and he had a feeling that he wouldn't be able to blackmail her into silence, and even if he did the guilt would still eat away at him. So there was pretty much only one thing left to do, tell Rachel. Of course he'd need to figure out the perfect time to, she couldn't be happy because he didn't want to ruin her good mood. She couldn't be sad because then she would just be even sadder. He could try for when she was angry but he had a feeling that would turn out very badly for him. Maybe he'd just know when he had to tell her, it would just slip from his lips without thought.

"Rachel all tucked in?" Leroy asked as Finn wandered back down the stairs no longer bothering to hide his yawn.

"Yeah, she was practically asleep before her head hit the pillow." Finn chuckled. "I'll be back tomorrow morning, hopefully she'll actually sleep all the way through tonight."

"I thought I was hearing things." Leroy muttered. "Rachel's been calling you in the middle of the night?"

"I don't mind." He shrugged. "I like listening to Rachel talk even if I do have to look up every other word she says."

"Is she having nightmares?" He asked concerned, Finn shook his head.

"Nah, just more ideas for the protest, she's really excited about those guys finally getting what they deserve." He shared with a yawn. "Sorry I should really get home, I'm exhausted."

"I don't feel comfortable letting you drive like this." Leroy decided. "You can sleep in the guest room, it's all made up. I'll call your mother and let her know."

Much too tired to bother arguing he just nodded and dragged himself back up the stairs and pushed his way into the guest room. The bed looked so damn inviting and it was just as soft as it looked, he was snoring before his mother had even answered the phone.

_FINCHEL_

Kurt was pacing in front of the TV not calming down despite the club's persistent yelling at him to do so. Leroy and Sue's debate had finished a little over an hour ago and they were all awaiting his return with Mr. Schuester, Rachel had received a text that they were just a few minutes away.

The tell tale clinking of keys alerted everyone that they were finally home and the group had pounced before Leroy and Mr Schuester were barely through the door.

"That was amazing!"

"Please teach me how you did that!"

"You're officially my hero!"

"You rock man!"

All of the voices overlapped each other and after an hour of arguing with Sue Sylvester, Leroy had the worst kind of migraine.

"I'm so proud of you Daddy!" Rachel declared kissing him on the cheek and hugging him. Finn came from the kitchen carrying a plate of Rachel's special sugar cookies for celebration. Of course since he had helped make them she had renamed them Finchel's special sugar cookies.

"Thanks kids but I'm exhausted, you can stay down here if you like but I'm heading up to bed." Leroy yawned. "Don't forget sweetie we're picking your dad up from the airport tomorrow morning."

"I know Daddy." Rachel replied hugging him good night, Leroy waved good night and pulled himself upstairs leaving Mr Schuester at the mercy of the kids.

"What do you think is going to happen now?" Mercedes asked, the voter opinion poll had agreed with Leroy's argument with an astounding eighty percent saying that Figgin's stance was wrong.

"He made Sue Sylvester concede that Rachel's tormentors should have been apprehended by now and that more should be done to combat the bullying problem in the school that Figgin turns a blind eye to." Kurt stated even though they had all watched the debate together.

"The statistics Artie pulled on dumpster tosses and slushies attacks broken down by year and subsequent victim repetition was amazing, who would have thought the hockey team ignoramuses penchant for bragging about their daily geek bashing would be useful." Rachel praised. "And the information Quinn and Santana provided on the Cheerios finances legitimized our argument that the schools funding is not being evenly handled."

"Yeah Sue looked like she was completely biased especially when he called her out on using dry cleaners in France." Matt laughed. "And that the Cheerios uniforms are made by blind Tibetan monks and cost over a thousand dollars each?"

"Aren't you guys worried about what Sue will do to you guys? She has to know who blabbed." Mike asked throwing an arm around both Brittany and Santana.

"And risk losing two more Cheerios?" Santana scoffed. "Please she couldn't handle more try outs, the only people co-ordinated enough to join the cheerios are already on the cheerios. She wouldn't risk another trophy so close to competition."

"I'd still check under my bed and in the closet before going to sleep." Tina added with a shudder. "She might let it go for a while but once that competitions over she'll be out for your blood."

"So, she tries anything and we've got their backs right?" Matt asked looking around at the club who all nodded. "She can't do anything with twelve people watching her every move."

"She's Sue Sylvester." Brittany replied in one of her rare focused moments.

"I wouldn't worry about Sue." Mr Schuester interrupted seizing his opportunity to speak. "I think she respects what you kids are doing, she just doesn't want anyone to realize she has a heart."

Rachel opened her mouth to reply but was cut off by the phone ringing. Finn couldn't help but stare after her when she bolted not wanting the ringing to wake up her father.

"Seriously guys I am so proud of what you have done for each other, how you stuck together." Mr Schuester praised obviously gearing up for one of his rousing speeches, it felt weird that they weren't in the choir room or auditorium that was generally the setting for such moments.

"DADDY!"

Rachel's screech cut off Mr Schuester and Finn went running after his girlfriend the rest of the group at his heels. Leroy looking bleary eyed managed to stumble down the stairs and grab Rachel by the shoulders.

"Honey what's wrong?"

She tried to speak but no sound came out of her mouth, she held out the phone still clutched in her trembling hand and immediately sought refuge in Finn's arms which he gave albeit bewilderedly.

"Rach what's wrong?"

Leroy was speaking in hushed tones the only thing everyone could really catch was the nodding and mm hmms he mumbled which didn't really help. Rachel looked up at Finn and took a deep breath.

"That was the school board, they want to meet with us tomorrow."

Kurt let out a squeal that rivalled any of the girls and jumped up and down with Mercedes, maybe if the glee club was granted equal funding with all other extra curricular activities they would have costume that weren't made of polyester and poly cotton blend. He had to use extra sensitive skin care just to counteract the effects the deplorable materials had on his body.

"Are they backing down?" Mike asked, the rest of the teens all looking over eagerly.

"Not exactly." Leroy answered putting the phone down. "Looks like you kids might be heading back to school soon."

No one exactly cheered at the thought but it was a victory nonetheless.

"Yay." Kurt said unenthused. "So are we all going?"

"They specified that they wanted the whole Glee Club there and me and Mr. Schuester. I think Miss Pillsbury will come along also." Leroy explained rubbing his head. "You kids should probably head home and get some sleep, looks like tomorrow is going to be a big day."

"Daddy we can't go to sleep now there are too many things to organize. We have to alert the media outlets that a decision may be reached tomorrow, organize rides oh and someone has to pick up Dad from the airport!" She ticked off, she really needed her notebook organiser right now.

"I can e mail the media people." Kurt offered already wheeling over to his laptop.

"And the rides are easy." Quinn said. "You, Finn and Kurt can ride over with your dad, Tina, Artie, Mercedes and I will go with Artie's dad and Puck can take Matt, Mike, Santana and Brittany."

"I'm sure Emma wont mind picking up Hiram from the airport, he'd probably like to come to the meeting I presume?" Mr. Schuester asked.

"Oh yes definitely." Rachel replied. "Dad has been dying to get back so he can yell at Principal Figgins himself."

"Well I'll call Emma later and let you know if there is a problem, what time does he get in?"

"His plane is supposed to arrive at eight am but factoring in disembarking and baggage collection it will be closer to eight thirty." Rachel calculated quickly.

"Perfect, the meeting isn't until nine, they'll only be a little late."

"Well I really must bid you all adieu this time."

"_So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen good night!"_ Kurt and Mercedes sang back giggling loudly to themselves.

"I'm with the big Berry let's get out of here before they start singing a few of their favourite things." Puck shuddered. "I really don't want to know Hummel's favourite things."

The kids emptied out fairly quickly with only Kurt lingering while Finn and Rachel said their goodbyes.

"You're seeing each other tomorrow he's not going to the moon!" He shouted after waiting for five minutes. He still needed to finish his skin care regime and plan the perfect school board outfit, sometimes Finn could just be so inconsiderate.

**3 FINCHEL 3**

**Hope you enjoyed it, as to my lack of updates, I only just returned from rural Victoria after staying with family after my grandfather passed away. Hopefully this fic will be finished within the week 1 chapter left!**


	11. Chapter 11

**DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN GLEE!**

_Ch 11…_

_FINCHEL_

Rachel had been silent in the drive over to the school, the board had chosen to hold the meeting in the auditorium and the group had agreed that they were happy for the home court advantage.

"We're going to win." Finn told her reaching over to hold her hand, which she squeezed gratefully.

"I don't know Finn I have a terrible feeling in my stomach and you know I'm slightly psychic."

"When I woke up this morning my hair was doing this annoying Justin Bieber sweepy thing maybe that was it?" Kurt suggested shuddering; that little kid made him want to take his hair shears and use them in a more maniacal way.

"It did look pretty freaky." Finn agreed, Rachel glanced at the both and shook her head.

"That's not it, I'm really worried."

Placing a kiss on her temple Finn grasped her closer to him.

"Everything will be great, your dad handled Sue Sylvester I think he can take Figgins."

"Yeah, I hope so." She mumbled burying her head in his chest, as sure as Barbra Streisand was talented something bad would happen today.

"It looks smaller." Kurt commented as they piled out of the car, the meeting was to take place in the auditorium, the kids were glad to be on their own turf. The students that had remained at the school were gathered around the windows and doors. It was like a sea of red and white cheerleading uniforms and letterman jackets.

"Hey guys." Mercedes greeted expertly ignoring the glaring jocks. "Looking sharp boy."

Kurt smiled broadly, he'd gone for a Bogie in _Casablanca_ look, he was quite proud of his fedora. He tipped his hat and linked arms with his best girl, the other glee kids arriving and filling around them. Santana and Brittany were out of their cheerio uniforms but dressed almost identically in skinny denim jeans and singlets; Santana in red and Brittany in blue.

"Who called them?" Matt asked pointing to the other kids that had joined the boycott, they were holding signs and glaring at the school. The whole thing was beginning to feel very 'Donna Martin Graduates'.

"I did." Leroy said. "This is their school too, plus it wont hurt to have them in the background when the news crews get here."

"Nice work Papa Berry." Puck smirked, sending a one-finger salute to Karofsky who was openly sniggering at them.

"Let's do this." Mr Schuester whispered to himself leading the way to the auditorium, he had no idea how this was going to play out but he had no regrets.

Rachel followed after him a determined smile set on her face, show no fear it was a motto she tried to live by. Finn pulled their clasped hands up and kissed her knuckles.

Principal Figgins sat on one of the chairs; there were six in total and five very serious looking people sat in them. Figgins looked scared but that wasn't really any different to how they usually looked. The group settled into their seats feeling as though the six people were staring down at them; which technically they are. Off to the side Quinn noticed Jacob Ben Israel with his laptop apparently ready to record the minutes of this meeting.

"I would like to call this meeting of the Ohio School District School Board to order, I will now pass the microphone over to the head of the school board Mrs Gilbert." Principal Figgins droned handing off to a woman who quite frankly resembled a rumpled dog.

"We are gathered here to discuss the boycott of William McKinley High School in response to the following claims." Mrs Gilbert consulted her notes and coughed.

This was going to be one long ass meeting.

_FINCHEL_

"Does anyone else have the urge to start singing _We Are The Champions_?" Matt yelled bumping fists with Mike as the group practically skipped out of the auditorium.

"Hell yeah!" Puck agreed.

"As god as my witness we'll never wear polyester again!" Kurt proclaimed giddy over the thought of how fabulous his costumes could be now that they had more funding.

Mercedes groaned as she caught Kurt who had decided to dramatically faint in her arms.

"I thought for sure they were going to buckle when Sue barged in." Artie added shuddering, she'd resembled a fire-breathing dragon. "Do you really think she spent a year in Uganda training with the militia?"

"She is Sue Sylvester." Quinn pointed out, she was frightening honestly it wouldn't surprise her if it were true.

"Yeah but the other Papa Berry totally owned her!" Mike laughed. "Rachel your dads are the bomb!"

"Mike the nineties called, it wants its lingo back." Santana snickered. "Coach Sylvester will be out for blood now, she's going to whip Brit and I at practice for this."

"How is that different from any other cheerleading practice?" Puck snorted, she worked her cheerios harder than what was probably legal but considering the legs on those cheerleaders he wasn't about to say nothing.

"Equal funding wont matter if we don't place at Regionals." Rachel reminded the group. "Figgins will still cut the club and reallocate the funding to the cheerios."

"Those douche bags only got suspensions and kicked off the hockey team." Finn added not happy his girlfriend's tormentors would still be around.

"Rachel would you care to comment on the punishment of your alleged harassers?"

And there was Jacob with a microphone that he thrust in her face, balancing his video camera on his shoulder; his giant Jew fro balanced him out.

"Back off stalker boy." Finn spat putting himself between Jacob and Rachel. "If I catch you near Rachel again I'll kill you."

"And I'll help, we can use all those tools at my dad's shop." Kurt offered crossing his arms and arching an eyebrow. No one deserved to be stalked by Jacob. Well except maybe Justin Bieber, he hated that kid.

"Sounds like a plan to me." Mercedes agreed. "I will cut you!"

"Shoo!" Santana waved a hand at the teen. "I don't want to catch any of your fro germs."

"I'll have you know in some cultures this would be considered a sign of virility."

Santana blanched, Rachel having no gag reflexed merely looked revolted while Brittany looked confused.

"You just made my baby throw up." Quinn groaned looking a little green herself.

"Jacob please move along." Mr. Schuester ordered having just reached the group. The sullen teenager stalked away talking into his video camera. No one deemed it necessary to warn him when he walked into a door; it was more amusing that way.

"So I guess this means we should go to class." Tina said slowly holding out hope they could use the rest of the day to celebrate.

"You know I didn't bring any books." Puck remembered making an 'aw shucks' gesture. "Damn! Guess I'll have to skip today."

Mike and Matt started in at the same time using Puck's excuse. While Santana and Brittany again reiterated that Coach Sylvester would most likely kill them if she saw them today.

"Choir room five minutes." Mr. Schuester said loudly over all of them. He walked away quickly not giving them time to argue. The group quickly dispersed into their usual pairings leaving Finn and Rachel loitering in the hall.

"Hey Pumpkin!"

Rachel launched herself in her father's arms she'd missed him, he kissed the top of her head and spun her around in a circle.

"You were so good in there!" She proclaimed smacking a kiss on her other fathers cheek.

"Anything for my baby girl." He promised although when he had said it earlier it had sounded more like a threat. "I have to go home and unpack, Finn would you and your mother like to join us for a celebratory dinner tonight?"

"I'll ask." Finn replied scratching his head, hopefully this dinner would go better than the last time he had dined at a girlfriend's house. Rachel beamed and kissed both of her fathers' cheeks promising to be home by six. With a final wave to Rachel and Finn the male Berry's disappeared down the hall.

"I think they like you." She teased hooking her hands around the back of Finn's neck. "You were right, we won and now all we have to worry about is Regionals. No more drama!"

Finn's stomach clenched and he wasn't quick enough to stop his face showing the uncertainty. Rachel's hands loosened, falling slack to her side while she studied his face.

"What's wrong?"

"There's something I have to tell you." Finn croaked his throat felt like it was closing up. "And you're going to hate me."

"I could never hate you." She said softly reaching up to stroke his face; he shuddered away his whole body closing off to her.

"I hate me for it." He told her sadly. "I was still so depressed, I was pissed off about Quinn and Puck lying to me, and I was angry because I let you go and you found someone else who saw how awesome you are. I was so sick of feeling like crap; I thought that if I did it I would feel something. But I didn't, I didn't feel anything. I felt dirty and not in a sexy way either."

"Finn you're not making any sense."

She had folded her arms across her chest trying to project that she could handle whatever it was he was trying to say.

"I slept with Santana."

Her chest suddenly felt like it was too tight, she couldn't breathe. Tears stung her eyes and the only sound that made it out was a bubbling laugh.

"You slept with Santana." She managed to say in between giggles.

"Why are you laughing?" He asked crinkling his eyebrows in confusion.

"Because I never slept with Jesse." She stopped her laughter, tears now spilling down her cheeks. Without much thought she tore down the hallway leaving Finn to stare after her.

_FINCHEL_

It hadn't been too hard to find her; it had taken approximately four minutes.

"I need to talk to you."

The Latina rolled her eyes and muttered something to Brittany before returning her attention to the mirror and the eyeliner in her hand.

"I take it Finnocence finally told you."

"Yes he has but I want to hear it from you." Rachel said evenly, her eyes may be red and blotchy but she was not going to let Santana intimidate her.

"It was hardly a memorable experience." Santana drawled swapping out her eyeliner for lip-gloss and pouting. "Thanks to Finn's little problem he was still paddling around the kiddie pool when he's noodle snapped."

"When did you have Chinese?" Brittany asked applying her own lip-gloss.

"Listen Berry, I don't like you and we're not friends but we need you for the competition so don't mistake what I'm about to say as me being nice. Finn and I didn't exactly have sex, Mr Early Arrival hovered but never fully achieved lift off, got it?"

Rachel nodded slowly, Santana's metaphors were hardly subtle and she'd knew all about Finn's issue.

"Why should I believe you?"

"Why would I lie to make you feel better?" Santana replied back. "The truth is, Coach Sylvester was going to bump me from head cheerleader unless I had a younger man, Finn being the rocket scientist he is believed me when I said it was done. I have a rep to protect and Finn wanted to prove he was over you. Which he failed majorly at, he could barely get it up and once he did it was over faster than velour tracksuits."

"They why did you lie to him?" She asked, she had always known Santana could be cruel but she thought that she was always slightly nicer when with her glee club friends.

"Status, I'm top dog around here, swiping Finn's V card solidified my reign. It was nothing personal."

That was probably as close to nice as Santana had ever been.

"Thank you for telling me the truth." Rachel stepped forward, the cheerio sighing loudly as she turned to face her. "But if you ever use Finn like that again I will hurt you. You have no idea what I'm capable of when motivated."

She smiled brightly and waved cheerfully at both girls.

"I'll see you in the choir room."

_FINCHEL_

**Sorry for the long ass wait for this chapter. I was too busy grieving the loss of Matt from GLEE. Minor character but very heartily missed by me. **


	12. Chapter 12

**DISCLAIMER: I am not Ryan Murphy. But I'm just one lamp entombing a genie away….**

**Ch12…**

_FINCHEL_

It had actually taken closer to thirty minutes before the glee club in its entirety was finally assembled in the choir room. Finn has been the last to arrive having been running around the school trying to find Rachel who was of course already in the room.

"Ok guys I know the last few weeks have been hard but we still have a lot of hard work ahead of us!" Mr. Schuester turned to the whiteboard, which had 'Regionals', scrawled across. "Now before our little drama we were discussing songs for Regionals, and in light of what has happened I think we should make a new list."

"Mr. Schuester?" Rachel asked raising her hands to what she believed to be well natured chuckles. "Before we discuss Regionals I would like to sing to my peers. It's my thank you for standing by me through the last few weeks."

"Of course." Mr. Schuester nodded taking Rachel's vacated seat while she walked to the centre of the room.

"I think you'll all be able to understand what I am trying to say so I wont bore you with an explanation." Rachel started.

"Just with the song then?" Puck called out winking at Rachel to show he was joking; Quinn lightly slapped him over the head and Mr. Schuester gave him a stern look anyway.

Stepping forward Rachel made sure to lock eyes with each glee clubber, her emotions pouring into the song.

"_Every night I stand here with this view  
Every time I sing these songs  
I sing them to you  
Its what I do"_

Her eyes were started to feel teary but she soldiered on; needing to get this out.

"_Every song that we play,  
the music we make  
Well what can I say?_

_It's a beautiful feeling  
It's a beautiful feeling  
You make me realize  
You make me feel alive  
It's a beautiful"_

Taking small careful steps she weaved around the small room her fingers trailing along the shoulders of the people she passed.

"_When I move my feet pull out on me.  
It gives me hope.  
Reaching out with open arms  
It turns the key  
Now I can see that  
There's a view from up here  
That I want to share  
Well what can I say?"_

She smiled at Mike and Matt who were holding up their phones and swaying them back and forth, they were such idiots sometimes, but sweet idiots.

"_It's a beautiful feeling  
It's a beautiful feeling  
You make me realize  
You make me feel alive  
It's a beautiful._

_Every moment leads me here  
you make me realize  
you make me alive"_

"_It's a beautiful feeling  
It's a beautiful feeling  
You make me realize  
You make me feel alive  
It's a beautiful_

_I feel alive  
Beautiful feeling  
I can see the sky."_

Returning to the middle of the room she turned to Finn and sang the last part directly to him.

"_You make me realize  
You make me feel alive  
It's a beautiful.__"_

Mr Schuester started off the applause slinging one arm around Rachel's shoulder.

"I think that was the perfect way to start our first meeting back at school!"

Rachel nodded slightly and strode forward to take her seat next to Finn boldly reaching over and grasping his hand in her own. Finn stared at her confused but she kept her gaze forward giving Mr. Schuester her full attention.

"Alright, ideas let's hear them!"

"Lady GaGa!"

"Britney Spears!"

"Cee Lo!"

"Unicorns!"

Brittany blinked at the people staring at her, "I wanted to yell too."

"I need songs guys!" Mr. Schuester said exasperated, they really, really needed that set list for regionals.

"I have a suggestion." Rachel spoke up; hand raised the picture of polite. "This year has been different for all of us and I was thinking we should use a song that demonstrates the bond we have all formed and how we know accept each other for who they are; _Time of our lives._ "

"That's definitely an interesting idea." Mr. Schuester said slowly nodding his head.

"_Affirmation_." Quinn blurted out. "That's a song about accepting things without judgement."

"That's our theme. Look at us; this club shouldn't work at all but we accept and respect each other's talent. That can be the thread between the songs."

"We still need a third number." Santana pointed out. "We can start with Rachel's suggestion and end on _Affirmation_ but we need the link."

"Well you all have your assignment for tonight. Find our third song for Regionals." Mr. Schuester clapped breaking out into a grin. "Brad, care to start us off?"

The ever-silent pianist took his rightful place on his stool and cracked his fingers before starting the slow melody. Rachel hastily pulled her emergency lyrics folder from her bag and pulled out several copies of the song; she knew that at the very least Mercedes and Tina would already know the words.

Rachel grasped Finn's hand and held the lyrics in front of them starting them off.

"_This is where the chapter ends_

_A new one now begins_

_Time has come for letting go_

_The hardest part is when you know_

_All of these years _

_When we were here _

_Are ending_

_But I'll always remember_

_We have had the time of our lives_

_And now the page is turned_

_The stories we will write_

_We have had the time of our lives_

_And I will not forget the faces left behind_

_It's hard to walk away from the best of days_

_But if it has to end, I'm glad you have been my friend_

_In the time of our lives"_

Finn put his arm around Rachel so that she was cradled to his chest, it was his turn to sing to her.

"_Where the water meets the land_

_There is shifting in the sand_

_Like the tight that ebbs and flows_

_Memories will come and go_

_All of these years _

_When we were here _

_Are ending_

_But I'll always remember_

_We have had the time of our lives_

_And now the page is turned_

_The stories we will write_

_We have had the time of our lives_

_And I will not forget the faces left behind_

_It's hard to walk away from the best of days_

_But if it has to end, I'm glad you have been my friend_

_In the time of our lives"_

Tina sang next having already known the words but she was surprised when both Brittany and Santana harmonized with her.

"_We say goodbye, we hold on tight_

_To these memories that never die_

_We say goodbye, we hold on tight_

_To these memories that never die"_

By now the whole group had joined in having started to catch on.

"_We have had the time of our lives_

_And now the page is turned_

_The stories we will write_

_We have had the time of our lives_

_And I will not forget the faces left behind_

_It's hard to walk away from the best of days_

_But if it has to end, I'm glad you have been my friend_

_In the time of our lives_

_I'm glad you have been my friend_

_In the time of our lives"_

"I think we have our opening number for Regionals." Mr. Schuester announced clapping loudly at the group who were now all holding hands and huddled together. "I'll see you all tomorrow."

The rest of the group slowly broke away and left until once more only Rachel and Finn remained.

"We probably need to talk huh?" Finn asked scratching his neck like he always did when he was nervous.

"Probably." She agreed. "But right now I just want to enjoy this afternoon with my boyfriend."

Hands entwined they left the choir room, Finn following Rachel blindly. He kind of had a feeling that he was going to spend a lot of time following after Rachel, he was okay with that.

_FINCHEL_

**Hey guys!**

**The songs used here are 'Beautiful Feeling' by Daryl Braithwaite and 'Time of Our Lives' by Tyrone Wells. Both epic songs that once I heard just knew I had to use for a fanfic! **

**Side note I have just one chapter left of this. My muse has been cheating on this story with another finchel fic that involves Rachel leaving when Finn blames her for everyone finding out about Quinn being pregnant. She leaves to attend a performing arts school in New York but returns one year later. Hit me up if that sounds like something you would be interested in!**


	13. Chapter 13

**DISCLAIMER: Obviously I'm not Ryan Murphy. I while hating the Finchel break up do find it believable. All the great couples have to have several break ups before they fully commit. And yes I know technically some of these couples never got back together but long after the show ended I know that they did…  
Buffy and Angel. Jackie and Hyde. Sabrina and Harvey. Cappie and Casey. Lucas and Peyton. Brenda and Dylan. Rory and Dean. Ephram and Amy. Jack and Kate. Isabel and Alex. Max and Liz. Michael and Maria. Parker and Hardison. **

**I could go on but I have a feeling you all would rather read the last chapter of this story!**

**Ch13…**

_FINCHEL_

Well this was intense. It wasn't like Sectionals, they'd barely had time to be nervous after the whole song-stealing debacle and Aural Intensity had sucked. Sure Sue being a judge had severely depressed them but that was just one vote out of three, they could so do this.

"Hey, you're not getting nervous on me are you?" Finn asked coming up from behind and wrapping his arms around her petite frame; he loved how he could rest his chin on her head.

"Of course not." Rachel replied turning around and locking her hands behind his neck. "We're going to win."

"That's my girl." He teased kissing her forehead.

"Always."

"Hey you guys its time." Mr. Schuester interrupted; reluctantly they pulled apart and approached the doors that would announce their entrances.

"Break a leg." She called softly to Finn pushing open the door the spotlight momentarily blinding her. She sang earnestly, pouring every part of her into the words they had so painstakingly selected. Finn's eyes never looked away from her, glittering with his own emotions. The group moved to the choreography created by Mike and Brittany, graceful without being flashy there would be no hairography here. Travis played his piano proudly as they slowly surged into _Affirmation,_ Kurt, Tina, Quinn and Artie taking the leads. This was her home, the stage made her feel alive and loved and more than ever she knew that this was where she wanted her life to be, just as long as Finn's eyes would always be there to watch her. Matt and Mike were breaking away to prepare for the final song; grasping the microphone tightly in her hand she accepted Mercedes and Brittany's help while they attached the flower to her hair.

"_I spend my life  
trying to do things right  
but all I do is fall to my face  
with my hands on my head  
so many times"_

Finn smiled dancing in sync with the boys, she had the bruised toes to prove how hard he had worked for this.

"_But then I learned  
after being burnt  
to get back up,  
to push straight on  
stop the tears  
people move on."_

Tossing the microphone without a second glance into Artie's waiting hands he swept Rachel up in his arms while she twirled easily and flipped herself over his shoulder.

"_Well it's alright to be myself  
now I've learned to stand  
well it's okay to be just who I am  
I've spent years really hating me  
longing to be friends  
now I hope that you can understand  
this is who I am."_

Holding the microphone in front of her confidently Rachel led the five other girls in what he still believed to be incredibly complex steps, Tina and Quinn each held a microphone and all three were singing together.

"_Now when life gets tough  
I'm quick to hurry up  
I run all day  
I run through the night  
I'll break down walls,  
I'll hit up high."_

Mercedes and Santana accepted the microphones from Tina and Quinn and they all switched positions, Rachel moved to the back and handed her microphone off to Brittany.

"_I don't care if I'm fat  
or if you think my clothes are bad  
Cause I can go to sleep at night  
I'm a good person  
and I'll get by."_

The group melded together each pairing up and just dancing freely, not caring if they looked like idiots, at least they would look like idiots having fun.

"_Well it's alright to be myself  
now I've learned to stand  
well it's okay to be just who I am  
I've spent years really hating me  
longing to be friends  
now I hope that you can understand  
this is who I am."_

Kurt reached for Santana's microphone and sang in his high pitch that reminded more than a few people of Faith Hill.

"_I need someone, someone,  
someone, someone like me."_

Artie wheeled around expertly blowing a kiss to Tina who pretended to catch it.

"_You deserve, deserve, deserve to be free."_

Puck even though he protested that this song was too female sang his line richly and even winked at his baby mama.

"_Because your world keeps spinning  
and your trapped in it."_

"_Well it's alright to be myself  
now I've learned to stand  
well it's okay to be just who I am  
I've spent years really hating me  
longing to be friends  
now I hope that you can understand  
this is who I am."_

It came as no surprise that Mercedes would need to be the one who wailed over the end of the song, it was just how it had to be.

"_Yeeaahhhh!_  
_This is who I am!"_

The girls faced off with the boys stalking towards them like a hunter to their prey.

"_Oh take a breather this is who I am!" _

They froze in their positions for a moment, basking in their big finale. Of course Miss Pillsbury was the first to start clapping, jumping to her feet and cheering loudly followed closely by their parents.

"That was awesome!" Finn yelled as they ran off stage scooping his girlfriend up and twirling her happily around the room.

"We are definitely going to win this!" She agreed giggling from dizziness. "You can put me down now Finn."

"Nope, I'm not putting you down ever." He told her goofily pressing a kiss to her nose. The euphoria from being on stage wasn't wearing off anytime soon. "You looked amazing out there."

"Thank you."

"Guys, Quinn just went into labour!" Mercedes yelled breaking them form the lust filled haze they were in. "Let's go!"

"What about the competition?" Tina asked pushing Artie down the narrow hallway.

"They can mail the trophy to McKinley." Rachel decided. "Quinn needs our support right now."

_FINCHEL_

Beth, as it turns out definitely inherited some things from his father. On the outside she was like a miniature Quinn, blonde tuffs of hair and bright blue eyes but she had her father's impatience. They were lucky to make it the hospital in time, although not soon enough in Quinn's mind seeing as she had to skip the epidural causing her to say many things that Mercedes swore made Puck quiver. At six pounds exactly and after only forty minutes of labour the littlest glee club member was officially born.

"This is all they had in the gift shop." Kurt said handing over a giant orange giraffe. "It was either than or some rather questionable flowers, this was the lesser of the two evils."

"Thanks Kurt." Quinn said tiredly, Beth was resting against her chest. "I can't believe we missed the end of the competition. Sue wins again."

"I think we all won today Q."

On the list of places you would ever find Sue Sylvester not once had a hospital ever been considered, some of the group believed that she hadn't even been born in one; just emerged fully grown with a tracksuit and a bull horn.

"Coach Sylvester."

Even in her tired state she managed to sit up a little, the already tiny room suddenly felt smaller, the group seeming to squish to one side in an effort to put distance between them and the seriously scary woman.

"I wanted to congratulate for bringing a child into a morally challenged society that will most likely hate that child and she will grow up to be as insecure and neurotic as that ginger out in the hallway."

"Shouldn't you be at the competition right now?" Mercedes snapped, it was outside of school Sue couldn't technically punish her for giving some attitude.

"With those mediocre performances the decision was fairly easy." She replied easily completely unfazed by the rudeness, probably because she didn't find it rude. "While I find glee club to be stupid and a complete waste of time I take the responsibility bestowed upon me greatly. Congratulations kids you've got another year."

"We won?" Matt asked fighting the urge to chest bump with Mike.

"Of course not, you came second. Aural Intensity won, apparently blatant pandering worked for them. You should make a note of that."

Leaving much the way she came, without so much as a good bye the group just stared.

"We got another year." Artie said slowly. "Hell yeah!"

"Wow I feel like Torrance at the end of _Bring It On_." Brittany said happily, although only Santana listened hugging her best friend.

"We got another year." Finn repeated more to himself than anyone. "Yes!"

Rachel beamed at the group who were now openly cheering and jumping around, well except for Quinn and Puck who were too enamoured in their baby to join in. Another year with all of these guys who had somehow become her friends, her family. She could definitely live with that.

"Rach, turn off your brain for a second and stop thinking of songs for next years Sectionals." Kurt ordered pulling her into a three-way hug with Mercedes. Finn joined in at the last second pulling her way and kissing her quite happily.

"I love you."

She let out a gasp of shock before smothering his face with kisses. Glee club stayed and Finn Hudson loved her, the night she would someday win a Tony award just got serious competition for best moment in her life.

"I love you too."

It didn't matter that it was a sterile hospital room that was more like a closet with all the people around; it was to her the most romantic thing she could imagine given Finn was kissing her and she was having trouble thinking.

_FINCHEL_

**So hope you all enjoyed my little story. Keep an eye out for my new one, I have several in the works. I will be posting a short one shot regarding the break up since I have the perfect song for it! Anywho much love to you all for reading me!**


End file.
